Here we have an album for those who don’t like their music to stagnate and stand still. This trio from Italy include G.G. from Cosmic Putrefaction, Summit and The Clearing Path in their ranks and make a strange sound which lurches, morphs and constantly shifts shapes and really keep the listener’s brain busy trying to take it all in. Black and death metal is at the heart but it’s the technical ability of the players one has to focus their attention on as things are expressed in ever-flowing motion, tying those bits of the brain trying to make sense of it all into knots. Actually it’s not that bad if you really focus on things and it will have your jaw hitting the ground at times. This is certainly an album by musos for musos but the rest of us can enjoy it as well, even if at times it is with a certain sense of bafflement.

There are some orchestral parts smoothing the edges from the avant-garde approach, there’s also a jazz-like dynamic and dissonance at times and as for the vocals they border on lunacy as they are gargled, rasped and slewed out like they are being delivered by some strange mythical creature who dwells far beneath the earth. That eeriness we have been promised is there too as things take on macabre shapes but the first stop is romantic orchestration as a prelude to the tempestuous stumbling gait of opener ‘Into Cerulean Blood I Bathe.’ Speedy flurries and vocal gurgles make this a choppy and frantic number with some excellent symphonic keyboards embedded in the otherwise tumultuous melody. Probably the best “get a grasp” track is the marvellously entitled ‘Frostpalace Gloaming Respite’ which has a trollish stomp rhythmically and Orc like vocals. Keyboards and guitar structures put this in the realm of latter period recorded Emperor and the rampant chop and change of riffs will liken it to Gorguts as the PR blurb points out nailing the comparisons perfectly. There’s plenty of blasts from drummer R.R. who apparently also supplies some of the crazed vocals and thick bass grooves too as the manic ‘Drown in Aether, Sovereign of Withered Ardor’ furrows away with unhinged zeal. Add some clean background chants and although it sounds like the band are throwing everything at you it all manages to somehow stick together as a cohesive whole. Not finished with us yet though we have lush symphonic parts sweeping in adding romantic intrigue and mysticism acting as a bridge into ‘Cupio Dissolvo’ and allowing us to momentarily dissolve into a passage of blissful nirvana.

As things continue there are hypnotic structures that bathe in warmth and at times remind me of the equally weird Ruins Of Beverast before massive salvos attack and clamour for attention. At times its overwhelming at others the majestic and grandiose swathes of keyboards act perfectly as the sublime part of the album title. By the time we get through the penultimate fiery cavalcade of ‘Desperately Ablaze, From The Lowest Lair’ it is the title track we ultimately arrive at and get something else completely unexpected. In essence the frenzy is completely forgotten and we have a cleanly sung folk song vocally delivered by Giorgio Trombino who even more bizarrely is apparently a death metal / grind vocalist. If anything it reminds me of a band like Hexvessel at their most wistful and does make you wonder if the album would have been better left at the last song. Still it adds to the overall strangeness of it all and adds a further spark of magic to a spellbinding album.

Now I need to go and unravel my head but this was a dialogue well worth engaging with.

(8/10 Pete Woods)

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https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-dialogue-with-the-eeriest-sublime