Fauna
Avifauna

He stopped thinking about life the very moment he gladly accepted the idea of death.

Standing on the top of the slope, his face cut by icy gusts of wind, he wore a calm expression, determined on what to do: without regrets, without hesitations, without particular desires except to take a step and plunge into nothingness, to embrace the rushing waters of the waterfall that roared a few meters near him. He felt destined for something different, for a purpose other than the life he was living, ready for a next step, for something he had always perceived as written for him but whose name he had not yet found.

So he took a step, and for a moment he felt almost suspended in mid-air: in that moment, a ray of sunlight passed through the fronds of the ancient conifers of what he had identified as the place of his consecration in nature... This ray flooded him, numbed his eyes, and replaced his vision with a shining light so beautiful it was unbearable. However, he felt no need to reopen his eyes: the world was there, in front of him, he saw it with his mind, perceived it with the senses of thousands of living creatures that were silently observing his gesture. He felt a tingling in his limbs, he was beginning to not feel them anymore, or rather, he perceived that they were crumbling, dematerializing into billions of drops of water that, gathered, were falling down towards the basin of the waterfall. He noticed his hair had suddenly grown enormously and had taken on a shape and consistency akin to moss and the fresh grass of the morning undergrowth... His eyes, as mentioned, now saw that place in its entirety, his senses were those of wolves, of foxes, of birds, of fish, and every other animal that breathed and lived within a hundred kilometers... His skin was as rough as pine needles, his breath emerged from his body, now almost entirely vanished, with the consistency of the mist that splits the trees in the clearing in two, morning and evening.

He did not feel the impact with the waterfall's whirlwinds, as he had now become waterfall, and did not fracture his bones against the rocky bottom, because he was rock and pebbles, and his limbs and skin were not torn by the animals of the river and the shore, because he was the animals now. Thus, his life took on meaning, he finally felt at home, and could explode in his furious joy in the most primitive way he knew, celebrating the victory of the life manifested through death.

The "cascadian" scene is now to be considered a subgenre proper of black metal: there is no longer any reason to lend the bands that are a part of it now to folk, now to black, now to post black metal; they now have their own identity, born of the strength of a movement (not only musical) well-rooted in the natural spaces from which it draws strength and in which it lives. Worthy standard-bearers and representatives of this musical genre are certainly Fauna, who with their two previous LPs always came very close to hitting it big and receiving a well-deserved consecration that they have finally been able to achieve with their latest "Avifauna", also thanks to the valuable work of Pesanta Urfolk, a label always very attentive to these kinds of groups. The new release by the Cascadian duo consists of five pieces, two of which are interludes and hypothetical intros for the following tracks, which, it must be said, are characterized by a considerable length (from 17 to almost 30 minutes in length). To be honest, this had scared me a bit, at least at the beginning: I am no stranger to long suites of this musical genre, but thirty minutes seemed really an exaggeration, yet I had to change my mind. The extremely extended duration thought for these pieces allows them to unfold in all their emotional crescendo, perhaps starting from a simple acoustic base, or a chirping of birds, only to increase in intensity with rhythms reminiscent of shamanic rituals or nocturnal landscapes characterized by a dominating nature. Everything works properly in this "Avifauna", the tracks do not bore but engage the listener and decontextualize him, transporting him to worlds of which the songs replace the landscape, which is animated and populated according to one's own sensitivity.

A bit Wolves In The Throne Room, a bit Alda and Skagos, Fauna have, as said, hit the target with their new work, gifting the enthusiasts of Cascadian Black Metal with another indispensable work for their personal collection.

"I am floating home on the blood of the wind,

The warning of ages burns within me.

As owl flies, winding by,

Our labyrinthine minds entwine."