Ephel Duath
RePhormula

The flair of this duo is something phenomenal, even if the stylistic influences will be easily recognizable to those who are experts in black. Davide Tiso (guitar, synthesizer, vocals) and Giuliano Mogicato (guitar, bass, synthesizer, vocals), from Padua, provoke the purists by producing a legitimate offspring of Emperor: "Phormula". Then they reissue it with modified titles and some additions of remixes and the old demo "Opera": "Rephormula", 2002.

Technically, they are impeccable both on guitars, vocals, and keyboards. Obviously, there are no Bard Faust in Italy, so the rhythmic choice is entrusted to the drum machine, which allows impressive bursts. The melodic part of each track is very well taken care of without ever abandoning the fundamental canons of black metal. The result is a progressive symphonic black metal variegated with shades of industrial and post...
I choose "Rephormula" to also comment on the 3 pieces from the demo "Opera", which I consider to be the best compositions they have managed to create. The first 8 tracks are therefore identical to those of "Phormula" (2000), some with the same title, others with completely different ones. I will use the titles from "Rephormula", of course.

The start is not slow at all, on the contrary, it is shocking and direct. "The Embossed" doesn't even give you time to get used to the sounds and kicks off with extremely high rhythms, mosquito-distorted guitars, Mogicato's powerful and effective screaming, and keyboards wildly played at impressive speed in intricate, well-crafted melodies. All this is surrounded by moments of apparent calm and tempo changes so violent as to be almost imperceptible. It's the same story with "The Greyness Grows Already Old", which starts with a deranged piano and erupts into a mad intersection of melody, very fast riffs, sharp screams, and clean voices that serve as a backdrop and an apparently smoothing element. Yet another intro crescendo, this time it's "The Danza": clean voices and sounds from toy pianos, flutes (obviously synthesized) that slowly lead us into a progression that speeds up with every passing second. The impression is one of pure fun, as if the two were playing with their instruments, and indeed, that's what I think it is. So too, "A Flickering Warmth" introduces us to something hard to understand. Yet again, developments of syncopations and melodies, dissonances, and tremendous riffs in yellow bass and guitar unison. The first and only acoustic-keyboard interlude is "Myriads", which, even though it lasts over 2 minutes, slips away as if it were truly part of the album, despite being the first and only track different from the others. "Phormula", as the name suggests, is full of venom and atmospheres among the darkest created by Ephel Duath. Mogicato's Ihsan-like voice this time takes the spotlight, surrounded by hundreds of different and complementary rhythmic and melodic solutions. Another gem is "The Blow’s Rhymer", which maneuvers through labyrinths of terror and chills of madness, through the dialogue of clean voices and fierce screams. "Insomnia's Desert" is the rightfully studied and refined ending for an album as strange as it is coherent, with the provocative finale that echoes the intro of "The Embossed", almost closing a circle. At this point, we find 2 terrible remixes that worsen the quality of the 2 originals they are inspired by: "Embossed", "Instinkt" (or Phormula). The former is a jumble of sounds put back together in the most absurd way possible, very akin to noise. "Instinkt" is a much more industrial and less metal vision of the sixth track, full of atmospheres but lacking in comprehensibility.

"Opera I". This time we go back to 1998, and the black metal becomes enormously more symphonic, getting even closer to that of Emperor. 8 minutes not to be underestimated, demonstrating origins that are certainly less dirty than the present, which is extremely more electronic. Likewise "Adulta Hieme: the Magnificence" which delights with a keyboard intro of almost a minute and a half, then once again shows itself raw and not very congenial to catchiness, not leaving out the typical gallops with changes in tempo, reason, and main theme, even making us forget how all this started. The work ends with "Falling..." which indeed projects us into an atmosphere of dark and lonely free fall. The lack of vocal inserts enhances this impression. And the end of everything is once again surprising because it is a new sonic combination, demonstrating the infinite fertility of the two minds.

In conclusion, I consider this album a real masterpiece, an excellent ability to reinvent something already written by others. The comparison with Emperor is inevitably necessary; no one would deny it, and obviously, I would never dream of saying that the qualitative level is the same. But surely, one more album broadens the choice of what to listen to when you want quality and quantity that do not come at the expense of one another.