There’re the beginnings of a recession taking hold in parts of the UK and Europe. Now whether it hits as hard as people expect, belts are being tightened, alongside purse strings. Why are we mentioning this? Well bands, especially new, less established ones suffer when times are tight for the record buying public. If the price of food, rent and petrol are all going up and you’re still earning the same monthly wage as you were six months ago, then chances are you’re not going to have as much disposable income as you’d like. Meaning less cash to splash going to gigs or buying CDs. There’s a good chance that as soon as the new Metallica record or whatever big band whose album you’re looking forward to hits the shelves later this year, you’ll snap it up without a seconds hesitation. The same is not going to be true for Italy’s Stigma however, who are only now releasing their debut full-length after putting out two EP’s over the past five years, which is unfortunate for them as they certainly deserve a chance to be heard.

Ploughing the same field as so many other At The Gates clones have been doing these past few years to dismiss them as a simple deathcore, or even a metalcore act, is to be grossly unfair. Sure, they like to throw around the occasional breakdown and the vocal delivery is a cross between hardcore and ATG’s Lindberg, but for the most part there’s a lot more going on in When Midnight Strikes!.

Once you slide past the intro (“Walpurghis Night”) into “I Am Dracula,” you find yourself knee deep in a three way love in between Strapping Young Lad, Arch Enemy and Bleeding Through. Later on during “Flesh Ritual” and “Blood, Your Precious Blood!” there’s plenty of other sounds knocking around, such as Devildriver and maybe most surprisingly of all, Cradle Of Filth circa Cruelty And The Beast. A little unexpected yes, but it works excellently - it’s like they’ve taken the more metallic, rocking elements of COF (think “The Twisted Nails Of Faith”) and ditched the orchestration and high pitched squeal.

In fact, the odd poor moment aside Stigma manage to almost always do something that, while not actually original, is certainly varied. Rather than following the line so many other bands have done, these undead obsessed Italians instead found a new way of looking at something familiar (most likely from six feet underground).

Yes, there’s some of that European hardcore stomp you’re used to hearing from Maroon and Heaven Shall Burn however it’s buried deep beneath a metallic crust, which does owe some of its origin to At The Gates. But as we’ve said already, don’t confuse these guys with your average MySpace metalcore jokers. Sure the Hammer Horror style artwork and blood hungry yet none too serious lyrics might turn some potential listeners off of them, but don’t let that stop you from parting with some of your hard-earned cash for them.

Definitely different enough to hopefully not sink with the rest of the rats when this ship finally goes down. One’s to keep an eager ear to the ground for.

www.stigmahc.com