Enthroning Silence
Unnamed Quintessence Of Grimness

Praised in their homeland, Italian black metal bands are almost entirely ignored abroad; this is simply the result of an overestimation by our local critics, which has led to the national consecration of often unworthy or otherwise bland and monotonous groups. Enthroning Silence serve as a prime example: praised on Italian soil as promising figures of the European underground, they have yet to demonstrate their potential, lost in two entirely anonymous yet commendable and interesting albums.
Unnamed Quintessenze Of Grimness is the first effort of the Alessandria duo, released without the true underground past of tapes and demos that distinguishes most bands: a real shame, as this immaturity is clearly felt within the grooves of the record.

The album is structured in six long chapters interconnected by a sort of concept that illuminates the thoughts of the two minds behind the project (Seeker of the Unknown and Alsvart): a discourse filled with esotericism, mysticism, reflections on the meaning of life and death, from a perspective that is never banal but also rarely exhilarating. Alsvart's pen is somewhat heavy in tracing the concepts and sensations around which the imagery of Enthroning Silence revolves: even the theme of silence, which permeates and characterizes the band, considered a foundational element of the universe, remains always in the background, blurred...

The attention the group employs in crafting this framework is well spent but overall, there’s a sense of routine: the artwork, beautiful in its shades of gray and silver, seems somewhat conventional, not very original, and rather predictable. The precious phrases adorning the booklet seem to mimic some sad and depressed high school diary, struggling with a lesson too difficult in algebra: "Silence will mark our time" and "When we are ashes, we will be everywhere" make me think more of the melancholic reaction to a failing grade in trigonometry rather than serious introspection.

As mentioned, Alsvart's lyrical style, while avoiding succumbing to easy vulgarities or gaudiness like Forgotten Tomb, never achieves the linearity of Vikerness, who could summarize an existence in three or four images. At most, Enthroning Silence can venture a:

"In my spirit
Shadows and mist rest silently
While memories of distant conspiracies
Stir in my blood"

Musically, they pay a strong tribute to Burzum's Filosofem: the same extreme style, at the limits of traditional Black metal, the same understated and dreamy attitude. If there were the same genius, Enthroning Silence would truly resemble the German Wigrid, a master in recreating the early '90s Burzumian atmospheres: but talent and personality are lacking in almost the entire record.

There is a constant lack of inspiration: certainly, this is a genre where variety, technique, and originality are not necessary traits, but these excuses do not allow the group to emerge clean from the puddle in which they have sullied themselves. The production choices mimic those of Burzum, but they do so in a caricatured way, clashing with the immediacy of the Count, who acted without thinking, without making it a pose. Only "Embraced To Cosmic Infinity" and "Transfiguration Of The Triarchy" awaken the sleepy listener: Enthroning Silence has chosen a difficult genre to handle, not very fluid, which they seem unable to shape at their will.

The deliberately neglected production flattens the sound miserably, mixing the riffs together and relegating the drums (which already have a terrible sound) to the background. The effects used for the guitars are original but clash with the atmosphere of the album: the distortions seem like those of a garage band emerging from the grunge era, reminiscent of Mudhoney.

A real shame. The talent is there. We will see what they do in the future.