Frentrum
Demo

It's been a while since I last picked up listening to old-school metal played by new bands, mainly because I always have the impression (or more than just a simple impression) of listening to other nostalgics of certain periods like myself who, however, study the way to replicate the same proposals just to feel (perhaps) more part of that movement.

I also notice how in the past couple of years, it seems that cassette tapes and vinyls are back in vogue: that even in metal there are trends is a well-known fact, but seeing them spill over into the trend that reintroduces a specific medium is new to me. Hence why I seize the opportunity to write a review using the demo of a band I discovered by chance to hear mentioned right here (not for merits, okay, but now I will try to be impartial!) for a work released on cassette, with accompanying statements to emphasize as much as possible how such a format somehow equals authenticity (otherwise known as TRVE). I managed to get a copy through a friend - an irreducible one - who loves to trade/sell Italian demos (paid for, however, a more than fair price, 2€, practically the value of a blank tape).

My premise already encapsulates most of the negative aspects of this work, namely the lack of personality (I'm not talking about originality, to be clear) and having focused everything on cliché upon cliché, including the flaunting of the VINTAGE medium. I feel perceptive but also lucky, so I would bet my precious assets that the recording is the result of a PC, not an analog recorder: so I don't see the sense in emulating in appearance a retro product (?) along with the desire to add those defects which, it's true, at the time were part of the pleasure for the listener. But precisely, as mentioned, I'm also nostalgic and understand how the temptation is strong, especially in this period where the aforementioned trend can help if you follow its dictates.

Still staying on the aesthetic side, I noticed a couple of inconsistencies, or perhaps I could not understand what type of product this group wanted to conceive. This demo was declared as self-produced, but it is actually branded with the name of a label; perhaps to give the more professional appearance that a 'brand' confers. However, it seems that this mentioned is not a real record label but just the name the members use to brand their works (also in their other projects). Even the cover in normal common paper (with black print on white background on one side only) clashes with the sticker then applied on the cassette, almost wanting to make it look like a professionally mass-produced one. The cover image is cloned from a classic among classics for black metal, which I won't mention because it's too obvious; on the flap is also applied the 'famous' anti-something banner, just to insert yet another cliché; too bad that here it falls into the adolescent, putting a bar over the simple word 'TREND' with an inverted cross grafted in (when the whole work relies on a trend, that of the old classic demos and given the cover and themes, also on that of anti-christianity). Probably the group had an idea, I wouldn't know, but it was definitely thrown away.

Always regarding the cover, it was then strangely added inside a supplementary sheet with some details about the recordings, an idea perhaps born after the covers were already printed. Obviously, this is my assumption, due to the fact that usually, covers wanting to incorporate more information, simply have various flaps that fold over inside (and which was a pleasure to open, like leafing through a booklet!). Anyway, I had to use the internet to really understand the formation date of the band, which seems to play a bit on the declaration of parts (they say) written back in 1996 to date back the formation of the group to those years, which honestly annoyed me a bit (honesty, above all). To conclude, it is obviously included a sticker with the band's logo and the writing "lo-fi metal for lo-fi people", probably the only attempt to detach from the classic black metal and 'joke' on themselves by defining themselves lo-fi people (?). Concluding this first part, unfortunately, I remain of the idea that there is more the desire to put together various images to show off, thus obtaining as a result this hybrid between amateurish (in fact) and (attempted) professional.

Entering the contents, unfortunately, there are only 3 tracks to listen to, one of which is instrumental and another a cover; definitely too little, especially if the intent was to link this work to something born in 1996...
Even for the contents you find yourself listening to something taken (attempting, from Burzum) and proposed again, ending up in what today is generally defined as depressive black metal. Slow guitars and drums, added arpeggios, screaming and tormented voice, themes (as little as can be understood and from what I could find on the internet) concerning mental and human issues (forgive me but I wouldn't know how to explain this so I'm not venturing into details). For music and themes there's a lack of the fidelity of the original, to at least enjoy certain memories.

The voice is well recorded and well maintained in every verse, without sinking it too much with effects so you can fully enjoy it. Appreciable also the drum sound, without too many pretensions but facilitated by the slow tempi which therefore allow for a 'from rehearsal room' take without suffering the booms that would occur on more sustained tempos; optimizing as best as possible the little available. A big flaw is the guitar, already penalized (indeed, penalizing) due to the monotony despite various overdubs (praise be to the computer), which has the classic distorted sound of a plug-in or perhaps some pedal connected directly to the PC without being amplified (for musicians, it's the classic defect of the line-out take). Far from the 'vintage' or 'retro' that was intended to be achieved. As the script says the bass is practically absent, remaining more as a filler on low frequencies without ever being distinguishable, except perhaps in a couple of passages.

The two tracks written by the group are anyway very much alike (one is instrumental, except for a couple of words added after mid-length) and obviously very similar to early Burzum works they tried to copy, without however rendering the same instinctive anger; a soft and indeed depressive version. The lyrics are in Italian, a common thing among all new Italian black groups. Hard to say, at this point, if the small number of tracks is due to a lack of inspiration or the awareness that a third one like that would have been hard to listen to except after a well-deserved coffee break.

Finally, they try to recover some points by playing the cover card, to go on target. They offer a depressive version of Transilvanian Hunger, which loses its strength of wild Transylvanian scream (dedicated to Dead, as fans surely know) but listened to after the two songs already described results as the only pleasant attempt to do something personal (although I don't really appreciate thus distorting a song to the point of depriving it of its fundamental characteristic).

Summing up, if I had to use a football term: the group maintained the catenaccio closing in defense, to bring out this cassette which in 2014 would like to be the umpteenth new recording of a new group to summarizeonce again (more in appearance than content unfortunately) what was actually done by groups that later became historic. Sure, there are even bands that simply want to recreate certain styles and sometimes they succeed quite well, perhaps because they make the genre their own; but here we're definitely not there. There's more the fruit of a listener (I speak of fruit and not of judgment on someone I clearly cannot know) who attempts to emulate something; something that, I emphasize, is and must be much more than simple recordings and rough covers with true Norwegian black metal DIY images.

For a final score, the few positive aspects are heavily penalized not so much by the banality of the idea as by the tricks that ultimately outweighed inspiration and personality.