The Last Hour – Black Eyes (Album – The White Room)
Genre/Influences: Electro-Wave, Electro-Pop.
Format: Digital.
Background/Info: Behind The Last Hour is hiding Italian composer Roberto Del Vecchio. He received some recognition with some of his other projects like Gothica (which released albums on Cold Meat Industry) and Les Jumeaux Discordants. He now strikes back with a new album of The Last Hour which is the first one in seven years.
Content: The Last Hour has less in common with Del Vecchio’s other projects. This music is driven by 80s influences getting us back to Electro-Wave. The songs are rather rudimentary and into dreamy atmospheres. Passages remind me of Neuroactive and also for the vocals’ production. There are a few short songs on the tracklist which also has a Cinematic feeling.
+ + + : The Last Hour has an own style of Electro-Wave/Pop. I personally prefer the darker part of the work and especially recommend listening to “The Dead Of Night” -which might appeal for Neuroactive fans. The somewhat whispering style of singing is also a cool aspect of the work.
– – – : The production needs a bit more elaboration.
Conclusion: This album is an easy listening but without true ups.
Best songs: “The Dead Of Night”, “Black Eyes”.
Rate: 6.
Artist: www.facebook.com/thelasthour04
Label: www.facebook.com/thewhiteroomnetlabel
The White Room issued “Black Eyes” on 2 February 2022 as a digital release. The eight tracks are “Black Eyes”, “Dead World”, “It All Falls Apart”, “Parallel Universes”, “The Dead of Night”, “Welcome to Dystopia”, “Through the Looking Glass” and “Electric Impulses”. The label describes the record as eight songs plus one bonus track.
Roberto Del Vecchio wrote all the music and lyrics, and handled voice, synth and programming as well as the mix, master and production, recording the album in his own The White Room studio. Some words in “Welcome to Dystopia” are taken from George Orwell’s “1984”. Carlo Baldini of Port Claire and The Nine Tears plays bass on four tracks and adds synth modulation to “Parallel Universes”. The cover image is by Sergey Nivens.
Listen to “Black Eyes”:
About The Last Hour
The Last Hour is the solo project of Italian composer Roberto Del Vecchio, who has been recording since 1994. He founded Gothica, which released two albums on Cold Meat Industry, as well as Les Jumeaux Discordants on Athanor Records and Shadoworld.
The first track under the name, “Into Empty Depth”, appeared on the Cold Meat Industry sampler “Flowers Made of Snow” in 2004. A self-titled debut CD followed on Other Voices Records in December 2008. Seventh Crow Records issued the second album, “Deadline”, in December 2014, and Side-Line reviewed it in 2015.
Del Vecchio kept the other projects running alongside The Last Hour: Side-Line reported the Les Jumeaux Discordants release ‘Les Chimères’ in 2016 and the Shadoworld album in 2019. “Black Eyes” closed a seven-year gap in the project, and was followed by ‘It Is the Hour’ in September 2024.
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