Fall Of Minerva
Portraits

In the homeland of "belcanto", where people still get startled if, when asked what music you listen to, you answer with metal or hardcore, here comes Portraits. And thank goodness it has arrived. The album, debut of the Vicenza-based band Fall Of Minerva, is a metalcore bomb, made of violent moments and extraordinary melodic openings.

After a long tour that took the five Veneto guys beyond the Italian borders (they will soon reach Russia and then return here to us in the summer), Fall Of Minerva found themselves embraced by Basick Records and set out to create their first studio album. Portraits is multicolored: it is dark when the outbursts of guitars are always in the foreground; it is lighter when, unexpectedly, piano and violin break in. In the lyrics, there is despair, anger, and a lot of passion.

Technically impeccable, the ten tracks of this album are spectacular, and they emanate the whole soul of this young band. Just listen to the single "Beyond The Pines" to realize the skill of Fall Of Minerva. But there is not only technique: there is also a strong emotional component that destabilizes, that engages and makes this vigorous and too-rare sound in Italy magical. In the beautiful "Träume", the only piece sung in our language, there's fury and aggressiveness, there's a desire to fight.

What surprises are the moments when the violence gives way to melody. In the six minutes of "Sguardi Nel Buio" no one yells, no one "does growl", no guitar shreds our eardrums. There are violins and cellos, there is an entire orchestra that takes over and baffles. Six minutes of pure beauty, six minutes of chills where the feeling of unease reaches its peak. But also surprising is the post-rock of "Grave Of The Fireflies", dramatic and delicate at the same time.

It's incredible how bands like Fall Of Minerva, brilliant both technically and in giving us sincere and heartfelt emotions, remain a niche band in our country. They have nothing to envy to masters of Nordic metal like Cult Of Luna or American hardcore like Pianos Become The Teeth. Their Portraits positively amazed me. An album without fillers, without that excess of technicality. A true and sincere album, urgent, to be listened to repeatedly and spread to as many people as possible.