Bulloni Granate Bastoni (Lo-Fi Creatures)

 Frangar is an Italian Black Metal quartet formed in 2000, and “Bulloni Granate Bastoni” is the band’s fourth release and second full length album. The band delivers at this ten-track opus a modern yet obscure sounding blend of Black Metal with aggressive Thrash overtones, where the violent guitar riffing becomes protagonist with its precise, belligerent and pretty groovy sound, also showing some Punk influences, which inevitably reminded me the sound of Darkthrone’s latest releases at some passages. An accurate and excellently executed drumming is the perfect complement for such intense display of mutilating riffs, dealing perfectly with complex structures and tempo changes, while a powerful bass work contributes here with tons of weight and profundity with its intense performance. The vocal work here consists in vicious mid tone shrieks that complement and increases the overall confrontational feeling of this record, resulting in an explosive and corrosive blend of high caliber Black Metal… Being a Totalitarian Black Metal band with a firm Nationalist ideology, all lyrics on this record are completely sung in Italian, a nice original detail considering the most of the Black Metal bands (no matter where they’re from) generally choose a more universal language, like English, to transmit the ideas and concepts behind their music… The production of “Bulloni Granate Bastoni” is absolutely powerful and crystal clear sounding, which allows the listener to fully appreciate the outstanding execution of this potent album. Overall “Bulloni Granate Bastoni” is a killer release; the ten tracks it contains are a testament of violence and belligerence, the perfect use of Black Metal in conjunction with Thrash Metal and modern sounding elements results in a highly interesting and varied piece of war-inspired Black Metal of the highest caliber… (AP)