“The one UMBERTO performance we had the rad fortune to bear witness to involved at least a dozen dudes, dads, and ladies all on stage wearing sunglasses at night and shredding keyboards / keytars bathed in a sea of fog machinery and strobe lights and extraterrestrially-costumed interpretive dancers. Shit was BEYOND. Umberto mastermind MATT HILL allegedly went to legit music school back in the day and used to play bass for EXPO 70 (Justin/Expo released the debut Umberto tape/CDR, From The Grave, on his Sonic Meditations label) before splintering into his current electro-satanic Goblin worship guise—and we for one can’t get enough. Prophecy Of The Black Widow is his sophomore LP and though the badass evil Italo goth-synth horror-score blueprint of Grave remains, the main variation is subtle vibe-shift from ‘70s Argento/Carpenter-isms into more early/mid-’80s new wave creep-scapes. There’s still plenty of eerie nightmare keyboard riffs and vintage witch-disco breakouts but the synths squelch with more of a neon retrofuturist bent and there’s even one brazenly feelgood soaring-into-the-sunset closing credits anthem (the literally-titled ‘Everything Is Going To Be Okay’). Whatever prophecy Prophecy is foretelling, we’re on board. Black vinyl LPs in jackets with sick fake-3D lettering and art by SETH JOHNSON.”—NNF.