Of Solitude And Silence (Novecento Produzioni)

 “Of Solitude And Silence” is the second release and first full length album of this Italian one man Black Metal band formed by S.A. back in 2009. The style delivered here is an uncommon mix of blurry and chaotic Black Metal with melodic and atmospheric elements. From the opening track ultra blurry and electrifying riffs are fused with ominous keyboards atmospheres, which combined with a demo-sounding production creates the characteristic nebulous sound that will accompany each track of this album during the 37 minutes it lasts. The album moves over varied structures, altering violent discharges of hateful Black Metal with soft (and sometimes cheesy) melodic Black Metal passages, which results in some pretty weak moments, such the excellent opening track, “Of Solitude And Silence” that starts like a hateful Black Metal piece, but suddenly some “happy melodies” brake in completely devastating the whole tension of this song, is like mixing water and oil to me… fortunately we can also found here some more sober melodic Black Metal passages interestingly combined with the most raw-sounding parts of this album, resulting into the most remarkable tracks of this record, such the hateful “Human Scum” or the melancholically asphyxiating “Spiritual Desolation”, at these tracks we can find melodic and chaotic Black Metal elements accurately conjugated into coherent compositions. The hateful vocalizations of S.A. are completely ripping, cruel and echoing, in the finest vein of Varg Vikernes characteristic style, this unclear and somber performance certainly adds a great amount of obscurity and tension to this yet obscure record. As I’ve mentioned before, the production here is not the finest, the whole album sound dirty and saturated, but I know no Black Metal fan would discredit a good album for a bad production… so I guess it’s OK… “Of Solitude And Silence” is a nice work, I think the band has some serious potential and that’s reflected at the most torrid moments of this album but still needs to depurate its sound into a more coherent and continuous proposal… Anyway this album is still completely worthy of checking out. (AP)