KEYGEN CHURCH will release its stunning Nel Nome Del Codice full-length on March 22nd via Metal Blade Records.
KEYGEN CHURCH is the brainchild of technologist/songwriter Victor Love (Vittorio D’Amore). Love, also of 8-bit phenoms Master Boot Record (MBR), is a one-person outfit, writing, and recording via undisclosed real-time stream events, where the dedicated (and lucky) bear witness to KEYGEN CHURCH‘s spontaneous creative process. Like previous alt code/text art-titled albums ░ ▒ ▓ █(2022) and ░█░█░░█░█░█░ (2022), Nel Nome Del Codice is a modern-primitive love letter to doom/gothic/black metal with foundations in Baroque-era Classical and Romantic-era music. This time, however, Love has refined his sonic tool kit – “the complete set of sounds,” he says – the aftereffect of which is computerized big-hall libations like “La Chiave Del Mio Amor,” “Nel Nome Del Codice,” and “Lode Al Disco Sacro.”
Love got his start in music through technology. He was a tech at his father’s computer business, where hands-on experience with hardware and software cultivated a jump to sysadmin at university. From there, the Italian fell into digital marketing and trendsetting. When the KEYGEN CHURCH architect was exposed to pirated software, the intro – called “cracktros” – music was pivotal to the “key generator” culture. The scene (aka “demoscene“) that evolved out of that caught his metal-attuned ears and gadget-oriented mind. Master Boot Record and KEYGEN CHURCH are the products and expressions of a bygone bootlegging era thrust into the present through different genre lenses. Suppose the former is inspired by death metal. In that case, the latter is symphonic black metal, and Nel Nome Del Codice is not unlike Arcturus‘ La Masquerade Infernale or Elend‘s The Umbersun if envisioned by Japanese 8-bit composer Koichi Sugiyama (Dragon Quest).
Love’s work in KEYGEN CHURCH is homage and innovation. He’s a fan of ciphers – astute fans will have to figure out where they’re used on Nel Nome Del Codice. The logo is ASCII art, a “graphic language” created by bulletin board system (BBS) users in the early days of the Internet. While the cover may appear minimalist initially, the 1-bit pixel art by Germany-based illustrator Valenberg (Perturbator, VirtuaVerse) signals KEYGEN CHURCH‘s ascent to their final form. If the metamorphosis is complete, Love’s journey to Nel Nome Del Codice has been inspiring. The refined craftwork of “Lode Al Disco Sacro,” “Sulla Via Della Gloria,” the nearly eight-minute closer, “Sempre Nel Mio Pensiero,” beholds darksome liturgical majesty, the likes of which we’re hearing/experiencing for the first time at our respective pews.
“My plans for KEYGEN CHURCH are long-term,” says Love. “I am taking more pipe organ and piano lessons to bring this to the stage with my other bandmates in MBR. I’ll need to do it right or not do it all, though. That means I’ll have to figure out how to bring a pipe organ and piano live – or build a custom instrument. I want our first show to be in a church, and I’ve already got some ideas about how to make that happen. After, I’ll probably drop a new album, the follow-up to Nel Nome Del Codice.”
In advance of the record’s release, today KEYGEN CHURCH unveils, “La Chiave Del Mio Amor,” with Love noting of the moving hymn, “It’s a Baroque classical computer-generated fugue of pipe organs and piano with thundering drums, razor shaped synth metal riffs and artificial choirs.”
Stream KEYGEN CHURCH‘s “La Chiave Del Mio Amor” at THIS LOCATION