OvO‘s eleventh studio album Gemma, celebrating their twenty-five years of activity, is a manifesto of transformation.
Like a seed that makes a promise, Gemma is not just the title of the album, released today October 3rd, 2025 on CD, vinyl, and digital by the Canadian label Artoffact Records, but also an invitation to regenerate, to rediscover the hidden potential in everything. It is a dance of exploration between human nature, matter, and the mystery of existence.
The music of OvO, already legendary in the vast landscape of noise rock, industrial metal, and avant-doom, continues in the sign of perpetual reinvention, seeking further synthesis between electronics and experimentation, connecting to their brave and acclaimed records from the past few years, Miasma (2020) and Ignoto (2022).
Each track from Gemma is like an act of creation, an alchemical passage through the elements towards a form of new weird life that blossoms, explodes, and changes.
The electronics blend more and more with the guitars of Stefania Pedretti (Alos) and the percussions of Bruno Dorella (Bachi da Pietra, Ronin, Sigillum S), forging an even more solid and cohesive alloy, where the basic substances melt and confuse each other, united by unique and unmistakable Pedretti’s voice, which becomes the key that dissolves all barriers, shaping a personal and timeless language.
According to Pedretti and Dorella: «Gemma is a reflection on change, a seed that sprouts in the fertile soil of new inputs. Gemma is metamorphosis, a challenge to immobility. It is an artistic gesture that aims to redraw the boundaries, to go beyond what has already been heard, towards new sound horizons».
The first single Opale immediately highlights the breakdown of musical genres. With Dorella’s programming, and the guitars and vocals of Pedretti, it also features the abrasive voice of Martin Kaja aka Lord Spikeheart, with whom OvO share an ancient affinity, going well beyond music, rooted in a mutual recognition of unconventional paths, free from compromise. Opale takes on a dance-like pulse, hinting at iridescent shades in the future of the duo, beyond any predetermined structure.
The second single Stagno – in English, “Tin” – is resistance. It makes it through the world’s changes, like OvO during these years maintained its essence through a number of events, progressing but keeping their precise and fierce identity. Stagno is a mine that razes everything to the ground, with a tight industrial rhythm inspired by Ministry.
The third single Cobalto is pure energy. Cobalto (“Cobalt”) is a hard but fragile metal, essential for the life of mammals, and it’s a surprising dance doom track. It combines the duo’s proverbial edginess and their idea of accessibility. A strange, deviant dance makes its way between drum beats and electric strings.
Gemma, the initial title track, is an emblem of life. In Iridio the lyrics shout loud and clear which side OvO are on, that of sisterhood, of queerness, of the fight against patriarchy. Diamante is embellished by the cello of musician and theatre artist Paige A. Flash (performer as The Reverend Mother Flash, cellist of Cult Of Youth and choreographer-director Florentina Holzinger, noise icon in Cock ESP and Laundryroom Squelchers). Orocromo is symbolic invention. Zolfo is hot, primitive intensity. Neon is clear light that does not fear darkness. Rame is a connecting thread, Fossile represents the sense of a past that does not vanish.
As the beauty of existence is in its continuous evolution, that of OvO is in the ability to renew themselves infinitely. From this suggestion started the collaboration with the tattoo artist Neroatto, to arrive at a cover artwork that evokes the themes exposed so far in a visionary perspective. Visionary like Gemma, like OvO.
