Iter Charontis
De Desolatione

I don't love black metal, nor a certain philosophy of true-metal as a lifestyle or way of thinking, but this time I made an exception. The reason for this exception is that I feel a bit close to these guys since they are Calabrian and because they are an emerging group (like many) in our underground scene, but let's get to the point...

Deep darkness reaches the ear from this album and I couldn't expect otherwise; songs made of cold sounds and forest landscapes, with unsettling atmospheres and wind blowing through the trees, that wind that scares you when it shakes the branches making you turn quickly at the mere thought that someone or something is hiding behind. In short, this is the scenario evoked by the sounds present in this self-produced mini CD. Black essential and no-frills, like that early '90s black, Darkthrone-style, the true and pure black metal as it was conceived: relentless, monotonous and made of harrowing screams and double bass drum like a hammer (not like a helicopter, not to be confused with power...).

Amidst all this low-fi "chaos", Caronte (Charontis), through his journey (Iter) also takes us into acoustic parts with classical guitar and flute to create beautiful atmospheres, both as intros to the pieces and to break the obsessive fury in the middle of the songs, and lyrics in Italian and Latin mixed which give the work an even more mystical character. Listening to these compositions it becomes clear that English would not be the most suitable language to create dark atmospheres, but ours indeed, particularly Latin, although I must admit it is still difficult to understand what is being screamed without having the written text in front, even if it is our mother tongue (as in the best tradition of extreme metal). All this gives the work a more personal character, and they themselves define themselves as "true Calabrian black metal" paraphrasing the famous "true Norwegian".

In short, a decent work, although everything ends here and the songs lasting 7, 8 (some even 10-11) minutes in which there are at most 2 or 3 variations of time and atmosphere, are particularly indigestible, unless you are madly in love with the typically depressing and monotonous character of this metal genre, from which much has already been drawn, and therefore I believe our folks need to come up with something new soon to avoid staying stagnant, or continue on this path to remain faithful to true black, and to true fans only.

Recommended only for the most rigorous blacksters, and I am not among them...