Different. Italian band seemingly named after a computer game character and inspired by Mesoamerican shamanic occultism and the teachings of Don Juan Matus to Carlos Casteneda concerning the way of the warrior as a primordial power as opposed to the fractured modern man. Now there’s a paradox to start with. They also happen to be a black metal band. Add in a striking cover and there’s surely enough to intrigue most people about this debut.

The first blast is also curious in effect; somehow it manages at first taste to be both relatively clear cut black metal and off the wall at the same time. Obviously something went wrong in my brain so I try to grab hold again and this time it doesn’t shake me off. The overall sound here is a firm base of Mediterranean black metal; vocals and melodic style not an ocean away from recent Rotting Christ, occasional flirting with that stomping kind of rhythm too but all more raging. More primordial? There’s an odd pinch of almost hardcore to the vocal arrangement at times and a seventies occult rock to some guitar leads albeit rising from a harsh black metal backdrop. But then we also have the interludes of the Mesoamerican music and melody, the keyboards wrapped around the pan pipes bringing that haunting sound of mountains, jungle and desert to the fore. Except that slowly you realise they are not really interludes as they have a vein running through the entire work and once you pull back and see this as a whole then, then it starts to crystallise.

It opens with an extended intro of keyboard shrouded chants before the title track. This itself starts from a platform of barked modern metal and ethnic touches that explode into a raucous attack of black metal flecked with those punk/hardcore accented vocals singing exclusively in Italian. A little disjointed when it suddenly drops into pan pipes and whispered voice, but the more you listen, the more it, feels right.

We then slide into some cold black metal laced with a razor sharp, vicious taste of melody that characterises the approach of Tal’set. Despite this, it is raw and furious stuff red in tooth and claw. This is Intento, and where you begin to realise that there is real thought and soul at work here. The tempo shifts, the haunting keyboard and those classic black metal lead slashes conjuring another space and an odd sense of pride from the maelstrom. When they open out into semi acoustic, Mesoamerican steeped passages the lightness of touch, particularly in the rhythm section is so evocative that it would take real effort to remember that this was not recorded atop some megalithic Toltec edifice. When they give in to the black metal rush it seems to come more from within, anger and power blazing outwards.

Punto D’Unione offers some almost Nephilim flavoured guitar work, which considering their shamanic obsessions is another nice touch. Fuoco Dal Profundo brings a full on pounding vaguely akin to Rotting Christ on the warpath with arching musical wings of keyboard and ritual chant wrapping around it and leading you into some serious rock guitar work that slips effortlessly back to the black.

It is a mix, but one that works so well. I found it transporting and magnetic and as a different outlook on a genre it feels remarkably uncontrived. Quite unexpected. Probably the best ethnic influenced black metal I’ve heard since Tengger Cavalry.

(9/10 Gizmo)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/TalSet/126949660658442