SHADES OF BLACK: ANAMNESI, HORNWOOD FELL, IXAXAAR NEXIA, FUNERAL RITES

Emanuele Prandoni, the man behind Anamnesi

 

After writing this morning’s premiere feature for a song by From the Vastland (which I urge you to hear if you haven’t), I succumbed to a plague. No, not that plague, a plague of laziness. By the time I roused myself out of the stupor, hours had passed. To keep this post from appearing too late in the day, I did some painful cutting back of what I had planned to include. But what’s left here is very, very good.

ANAMNESI

“S’Enna e S’arca“, the second single from a new album by the Italian band Anamnesi, is a magnificent song and a multi-faceted one. Its anchor point is a combination of deep drilling riffs and high swirling ones, the combination creating a feeling of cold cruelty and fevered anguish over heavy drum thunder, slashing cymbals, and scintillating fills. The song includes bestial vocals and a variety of sharp rhythmic breaks that introduce booming and jolting sensations. The music is perpetually accented by riveting drumwork and by morphing guitar emanations that seem increasingly bleak and haunting, but with sounds that also resemble birdsong at one point.

The sharpest break comes near the middle, when the music transforms into mystical keyboard ambience before the drum and bass mount a methodical and magisterial skull-pounding assault, and those glimmering and gouging riffs return.

 

 

The lyrics of the song are in the Sardinian language, and are voiced by Fedek Pia (Losa, AccabbadorA, Riluttanza), who also wrote the lyrics, drawing inspiration from the rocks of S’Enna e S’arca. At the end of the lyric video below you’ll see this explanation:

“With the plain of Santadi and the promontory of Capo Frasca, S’Enna e S’Arca (Ark’s Gate), forms an extensive and regular peninsula that closes the southern part of the Gulf of Oristano and marks the beginning of Costa Verde (Green Coast). The coast, rocky and indented, is characterize by basalts and sandstones admirably carved by the marine waves, by the winds and by the salted air, in fanciful and picturesque forms. Formerly these rocks were used as building material, nowdays they are reasons of interest for geologists and visitors. The seabed is beautiful and evocative thanks to the transparency of the waters which gives a color ranging from emerald-green to cobalt.”

The album that includes this song is named Caurus, and it will be released at some point later this year by Dusktone. It includes cover art by Francesco Gemelli. Another single from the album, “A Prora“, was released in early March — also a wonderful song — and I’ve included a stream of that one too. To learn more about the album and when it will be released, keep an eye on these locations:

ANAMNESI:
https://www.facebook.com/anamnesiband

DUSKTONE:
https://www.dusktone.it
http://dusktone.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/dusktone.label

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HORNWOOD FELL

In an OVERFLOWING STREAMS collection three days ago (here) I included some thoughts about an advance track from Hornwood Fell‘s new 80-minute concept album. But I’m including this Italian band again here today because of a single they released in 2018 named Nur Run.

I discovered this single only yesterday because of a Bandcamp alert from Visionaire Records, who has just made it available through all major digital platforms. As far as I can tell, Nur Run consists of only one track, which has a different name: “Beyond“.

In this song, against a steady drum rhythm and goblin cackles, a craggy riff twists and turns like a large serpent, getting its poisonous teeth into the listener’s head quite quickly. The drums erupt in maniacal outbursts and the riffing takes a desolate turn in its mood, but later in the song the lead guitar generates hallucinatory sounds that are both deranged and bereaved, and the music also includes a beguiling duet of glistening guitar and echoing bass.

The guitar tones in the song are wonderful, and the music is mesmerizing, even when the ringing melody descends into dark feelings of defeat and despair near the end, and even when the drums hurtle beneath a queasy and quavering arpeggio at the finale.

BANDCAMP:
https://visionaire.bandcamp.com/album/hornwood-fell-nur-run

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/hornwoodfell/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IXAXAAR NEXIA

The new three-song demo by Toronto’s Ixaxaar Nexia is a big eye-opener — a volcanic eruption of frightening but electrifying blackened death metal, a pandemonium of sharply executed percussive mayhem, roiling riffs that sound both murky and white-hot, and a cavalcade of growls, roars, screams, and other manifestations of utter vocal torture and derangement. Swirling leads rise up in manifestations of disease and delirium or ring out like shrill trumpets of the apocalypse. The buzzing and swarming riffs also channel a terrifying kind of grandeur, creating atmosphere as well as violence.

The middle track of these three includes haunting keyboard ambience as well as bestial roars, and creates a blood-freezing atmosphere of gothic horror. It definitely doesn’t calm the nerves, but is still a welcome break before the closing burst of mauling, marauding, mind-bending madness.

Thanks go to Rennie (starkweather) for pointing me to this ravishing demo. As he mentioned, it will be interesting to see where the band go from here: “If it continues recording primal and raw or if it cleans up a little and emphasizes musicality — could definitely go either way”.

BANDCAMP:
https://ixaxaarnexia.bandcamp.com/album/demo-mmxx

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/ixaxaarnexia/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FUNERAL RITES

I really wish I had more time to write more words about Rite of Damnation, the debut album of Funeral Rites from Moscow, which was released on March 27th by the Russian label Ridge ov Dragon. It deserves more discussion and even more fulsome praise, but time being short, I’ll leave you with this encouragement to dig into the album yourselves:

The album takes plenty of twists and turns, but the dominant impression is one of an explosively powerful rhythm section, unhinged vocals, and theatrically dramatic, boiling riffs and keyboards that cascade with an almost panoramic sweep and create images of Hell ascendant. The experience is so thrilling as to be breathtaking, and through emotionally penetrating (and memorable) melodies, it is very effective in creating an atmosphere of world-ending menace, heart-breaking tragedy, and terrible glory.

The band also spare some time for riffs of the neck-wrecking and old-school heavy metal variety, as well as some arena-ready soloing fireworks, to go along with all the warzone frenzies, the soaring, fiery splendor, and the magisterial, gloom-shrouded marches. And that’s one of the great qualities of the album — the songs don’t all sound alike, though every one of them is thrilling.

Many thanks to Dork for recommending this album. In his message he wrote, “In the vein of Dark Funeral, Kult ov Azazel and so on: very melodic.”

BANDCAMP:
https://ridgeovdragon.bandcamp.com/album/rite-of-damnation