STORM{O} – Finis Terrae
Finis Terrae is the third release by the Italian band STORM{O} following up the crushing album Ere released last year. Finis Terrae derives from latin and means “end of the earth” and it’s also the name given to a rock peninsula in Galicia, Spain. It was believed in Roman times that the world ended on Cape Finisterra. The world never ceases to amaze us with never-ending and new boundaries being set each day. That happens with art and especially with music.
STORM{O} manages to create a visceral sort of hardcore based on a solid foundation of pure noise rock that gives way to some more labyrinthine experimentation in mathcore patterns. The lyrics are entirely sung in Italian and the vocals contribute enormously to the blasting and devastating effect of the songs.
The restless guitars on the first theme, Trema, opens up the album and the sonic assault ensues with Tempo Morti a song that manages to surprise us with melodic and blasting riffing that explodes and implodes occasionally with the drumming pattern that is as crushing as is addictive. Captivating and addictive riffs are better encapsulated in the song Ho Chi Mihn that gets our head banging almost automatically.
Hypnotic but brutal at the same time, Finis Terrae will certainly appeal to those that like their music relentless, noisy and with no borders.
VI SOM ÄLSKADE VARANDRA SÅ MYCKET - Det onda. Det goda. Det vackra. Det fula
Virginia Woolf once wrote: “the beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish cutting the heart asunder.” And this division makes us melancholic and helpless or euphoric and optimistic, since moods and feelings are never linear or automatized. VI SOM ÄLSKADE VARANDRA SÅ MYCKET is a band from Sweden with members from several outfits like Jazzbrunch, Cardinal Sin, Interlace, Ruh and a few more that has released their debut album that perfectly conveys the duality between light and darkness. The so called good feelings and the darker ones.
Firmed on a base of anguished screamo the band travels through different sonic landscapes, that are as epic and they are truly emotional. The vocals sung in Swedish add to the overall feeling of hopelessness and restlessness at the same time. The disquietude of the soul with her unfulfilled desires and unending wants. There is a darker and dense post-rock ambiance that can be felt straight away in the first two themes.
The album took 5 years to finally be released and it shows that the fruit of their work is entirely ripe. An essential listen for those that like their screamo within a spectrum of beauty and the shadows that appear when the light and darkness mingle with each other.
A PARAMOUNT, A LOVE SUPREME - Crisis Meditations
Straight from Delaware, USA, comes A Paramount, A Love Supreme that has released their 4-song EP this year. Following a strong tradition of raw and uncompromising screamo in the vein of bands such as Ostraca and PG.99, the band delivers 4 themes that are as emotional and poetic as they are brutal and restless.
Guided by the beginning chords of the first song, Catastrophizing, that are haunting and filled with abandon we enter a swirling chaos of manic vocals and energic drumming. There ensues the second theme, Overshot, that is filled with anguished vocals that are meant to bring our most primal and feral instincts above. I am young without Wilderness starts off with some melancholic and contemplative riffs that soon blossom into more structured layers that eventually crush into raw and emotional screamo. The final song, Mariner East 2, continues the tradition of unrelenting and uncompromising in your face screamo.
A solid and very cohesive EP for fans of raw and straightforward screamo.
Text: Cláudia Zafre
Label: Zegema Beach Records