Formed in Arenzano (Genoa, Italy) in 2009, VAREGO coagulate members with a long militancy in the underground scene. The band owes its name to a local plant, the characteristics of which are either curative or poisonous depending on the intent with which it is used.
With a matrix stylistically rooted in the sound of bands such as Mastodon, Alice In Chains, Voivod and Neurosis, the group has been able to find a very personal imprint over time, which reaches its apotheosis in the new work, symbol of the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new phase.
Originally a quintet, VAREGO in their first album Tumultum (2012, Argonauta Records) experience the wild impact of their inner chaos, well evidenced by the American producer Billy Anderson (Melvins, Mr. Bungle, Sleep) who offers his touch to the mixing and mastering.
The next EP Blindness Of The Sun (2013, Argonauta Records) sees the featuring of prestigious artists such as Jarboe (Swans) in the song Of Drowning Stars and of the free jazz musician Giovanni Sansone (Casino Royale, La Crus) in The Flight Of The I, defined by the specialized press as “a mixture between Miles Davis and the Eyehategod”.
September 2015 saw the release of “Phantasma”, taken from the new album Epoch (2016, Argonauta Records), produced again in collaboration with Billy Anderson. Epoch sees a change of line-up with the departure of Marco Red Damonte. The artwork has been created by the talented illustrator Marco Castagnetto. Here the sound of the band becomes even more peculiar, full of sludge, noise rock and progressive references.
In 2018 VAREGO took part in the triple-cd tribute to Death SS Terror Tales-A Tribute to Death SS (Black Widow Records), offering an incredible version of “Cursed Mama”. In this occasion they meet the producer Mattia Cominotto (Meganoidi, Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti) of the Greenfog Studio, Genoa, with whom an important collaboration will start.
Therefore Mattia himself will give his touch to the mixing and mastering of the excellent album I, Prophetic (2019, Argonauta Records), a cinematic journey that creates a new hallucinating sound. After this album the guitarist Gerolamo Lucisano leaves the band.
VAREGO, now a trio, find a new fresh energy and their matrix get even more cohesive. The sound becomes more powerful, an exanthema with grunge echoes, stoner rock riffs, post metal and prog rock nuances, that pushes the evolution of the group one step further and finds its expression in the upcoming album Varego. It’s the manifest result of a creative peak and, in the meantime, a point of arrival and a new start.
Recorded in few days with a live approach at Greenfog Sudio with Mattia Cominotto who also worked at the mixing and mastering, the album preserves the strength of the wildness and the organicity of the songwriting, leading to a new maturity.
Like the coal reveals the diamond over time, in this new record VAREGO know how to refine their visceral instinct, transforming it into a definite and incisive force. Their poisonous properties have become the exacerbated healing balm to the discomfort of today’s world.
With songs such as “Tunnel”, “Limbo”, “Needles” and “Raptus” the record incorporates the malaise of our days by offering an aggressive and hypnotic cure. It will not be a homeopathic medicine, but a tsunami able to invest, shake and regurgitate the toxins of our sick reality. Sorry if it isn’t much…
LINE-UP:
Davide Marcenaro – vocals, bass
Alberto Pozzo – guitars
Simon Lepore – drums
DISCOGRAPHY:
TUMULTUM (2012, Argonauta Records)
BLINDNESS OF THE SUN (EP, 2013, Argonauta Records)
EPOCH (2016, Argonauta Records)
I, PROPHETIC (2019, Argonauta Records)
VAREGO (2021, Independent/DistroKid)