Title: Vega
Artiste: Janvs
Genre: Black Metal
Familiarity: Zero
Recommended by: mythsofmetal
Expectations: I'm slowly getting more into black metal, and it's not one with twenty-minute tracks or even twenty tracks, so I'm cautiously upbeat about my chances here.
1. Torri di vetro: Kickin' it right from the off, with a big guitar assault and growled vocals, though in terms of some of the black metal I've heard this year this is pretty tame and even melodic. Some nice introspective guitar in the middle. Can black metal be relaxing? This is.
2. Saphire: Are you sure this is black metal? Cue Batty with another “where the **** do you get your ideas?” post: from Metal Archives, dude! This is so catchy and Matteo “Vincto” Barelli sings in a really recognisable voice, totally different to the growl he was projecting in the previous song. This is overall much more like progressive metal, with some lovely soft guitar passages, choral bits, the works. Love this. But it can't possibly be black metal! Can it? Is there such a subgenre as Melodic Black Metal?
3. Tarab: And now we have a spacey synth introduction! This just gets better, though slightly weirder, given its stated subgenre. Very dramatic, powerful, rolling drums and rising guitar behind the dark synth give the idea of something approaching, something imminent. There's that growl now, with slightly eastern sounding guitar hammering out behind it. It does build, and builds well, and the song is over before you even realise it, taking us to the only instrumental, and the shortest piece on the album.
4. Dazed: Played out on mostly church organ with violin accompaniment, it's unfortunately less than two minutes long. I could listen to a lot more of this.
5. Mediterraneo: Really kicking the stays out now as this hammers along from the beginning. The first piece I would really categorise or recognise as any sort of black metal, and that's no criticism. Fast, powerful, brutal. Then it slows right down in the middle to a very progressive, reflective guitar with whispered vocals before picking up again
6. Vega: And another gentle guitar kicks off the title track, with spacey synth swirling around. Seems like it may be a slower track, and has again that very clear vocal, in which you can see that Barelli really can sing. It's something of a pity he doesn't do this more. Oh no wait: I see I'm wrong. That's a guest vocalist doing the “clean” vocals, as it was another singing on the previous track. Okay then. Still a lovely song, and how often can you use that word about black metal?
7. Vesper II: The longest track on the album at just over eleven minutes, this too, oddly, begins with a soft, almost medieval guitar passage that then becomes stronger but still isn't anything close to what I would call really forceful. Very melodic still, though there is a long way to go. Clean vocals again, and though I don't see any separate credit for them, I would have to assume at this point that we're looking at one of the two guys who provided vox for the last two tracks. Whispering here too, over another very progressive passage, then it does pick up on the old black metal tropes as we head into the fourth minute, with growled vocals, but in truth the only thing really “black metalling” this up is the drums.
End result: Really, one of the best metal albums I've heard in recent times, certainly among the best black metal. Will have to dip more into their catalogue for sure. Myths comes up trumps yet again!
So, Love or Hate? I can only award this a
True Love, really, can't I?