It seems there is very little info available on this Italian duo; hardly surprising I guess since Inter Peritura is their debut album and they do not appear to have released any demos or the likes previously. There is no history of note to mention, however vocalist Cabal Dark Moon has also been active in a band called Obscure Devotion since 1996. With all song-titles and lyrics in Italian and currently without the cover/booklet for reference, all attempts to come up with a witty and clever introduction are failing me, so on to the music!
Well I’ll cut to the chase; this is an outstanding debut! A good 80% of debuts that pass my way range from the terrible to the mediocre to the promisingly good...ie they could potentially do something impressive in the future but they still need to find their own feet or improve either in their musicianship or songwriting or they are just missing that spark. I have none of these complaints with Inter Peritura, and I was rather surprised to discover it to be their first recording. The album is brought in with an instrumental, ‘Ingresso’, which prances forth with a grandiose stride, leading in to the first track proper, ‘Il sacrificio del tempo’. The lead guitars scrape at the surface with a scything tone and at a slowish pace that focuses on building an atmosphere, with keyboards swathing beneath it. The feelings of solitude and desolation come across very clearly through the music as well as in the excellent vocals. I am reminded at times of Drudkh in the drumming style which is very thorough and chaotic, while the bass really works its magic adding texture to the mix.
The deep baritone vocal parts add depth to things and contrast between the fearsome rasps; this comes across beautifully on ‘Il mondo è cenere’ as these vocals drift above a lovely jangly guitar line that is fattened out with lush keyboards that really wrap themselves around you and draw you in. The main vocals are intense and full of passion and anguish and nothing is done in a half-arsed manner. With a gust of wind, ‘Hoc unum scio’ blows in with a reflective acoustic guitar melody that slowly passes through and sets the foundation for a kind of deep prayer-like chanting mixed together with anguished cries. This nicely breaks things up and adds further streaks of colour to the picture, although there is no shortage of that anyway and this is far from a two-dimensional recording. ‘Grave regina immonda’ has a real sense of foreboding and evil and the way the notes are jaggedly drawn out on the piano reminds me of the dark, trippy dream-sequence spiral-staircase music in Dario Argento’s Opera, and drifts into a solid composition that portrays thorough darkness, madness and despair eventually coming to full fruition with a Kvarforth-esque ‘Ugghh’! This has a fierce rhythmical stomp backed by feral drumming and a hypnotic guitar tone when it really gets going and is intercepted with dreamy crepuscular flurries. This is possibly my favourite track on the album!
The whole album comes across as exceptionally well-written and executed; dynamic and emotionally stirring, filled with moments of utter despair, desperation and angst. There are moments when I am reminded of Drudkh, Shining, Wodensthrone and even Negura Bunget and this deserves some serious recognition. Possibly a contender for my top 10 albums this year.
http://www.warnungstraum.altervista.org
Luci Herbert
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