Mystical Fullmoon
Scoring A Liminal Phase

Unfortunately, we Italians, probably more than others, (it is known that exaggeration is inherent in our DNA), are particularly fond of things foreign; we always look abroad, not realizing that we have everything here, and often even better, full of overwhelming originality and an extraordinary personality: how many bands can be described as original and creators of a genre truly outside the known normal parameters? Let us mention, for example, Ephel Duath, Morkobot, Ufomammut, Ensoph, Thee Maldoror Kollective, Ovo, Ronin, Klimt 1918, Forgotten Tomb, among many others. Bands that have an enviable following abroad, while here, as they say, they go unnoticed except for a crew of passionate underground enthusiasts.

This lineup of bands unknown to us but deserving of praise is joined by these magnificent Mystical Fullmoon: formed in 1994 in Milan, released a few years later with a completely self-produced work (Beyond Sorber Passages, 1999), where they assembled simple and direct black metal, no frills, imbued with the teachings of the Norwegian school; since then, darkness prevailed.

"Scoring a Liminal Phase" marks the end of the dark period for the band, and it is an ambitious work from the subtitle onward, "Ten Strategies For Postmodern Mysticism," ten strategies for postmodern mysticism, a work in which different souls clash and meet, where the beauty of the lyrics goes hand in hand with the musical substrate, full as it is of references to cult bands like Arcturus, Borknagar, Ved Buens Ende, Ulver, Aborym, all seasoned with a look at the cosmos similar to that proposed by bands like Limbonic Art, and above all sharpened by an extraordinary personality. It is obviously about experimentation, an almost perfect union of black metal, futuristic industrial, psychedelia, jazz, dark-noir, symphonic-metal, space rock, avant-garde to the nth degree: insane and chilling bottlenecks of Scandinavian black of the best school clash with majestic and epic openings borrowed from the best symphonic class, here supported by none other than the Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra; luminescent psychedelic ascents weave into the tight net of icy, electronic, sometimes ambient, sometimes hammering industrial-like compositions, and other times pioneering space climbs, with a perfection that surpasses all imagination (you can see from the date assigned to each track - lyrics and music - how much work has been done, more than 12 years it seems).

I said almost perfect, because I still see room for improvement especially in some excessive lengths (the album lasts more than 70 minutes) and in some electronic solutions that can be further enriched with significant details; but it's like looking for a needle in a haystack in an album that goes beyond, in the true sense of the word, that knows how to delve deep, that explores with courage territories already extensively covered in the past by other splendid formations, even from Italy, but in surprisingly original ways. It knows how to excite.

Mystical Fullmoon are back, even if few remember their first season of existence, and now more than ever they are here to stay.

So let's stop looking beyond the boot, MF is here to show us once again, if it wasn’t clear, that Italy has long taught a certain way of understanding music, all special, all ours: it's like the language, no English, or German, or from any other country, will ever speak Italian like us, with the same cadences and the same accents, they would speak it Anglicized or Germanized, it's only ours, just like in music, no one will take away our way of composing, creating and exciting, even if sometimes we stubbornly insist on copying American stuff or who knows from what other country, the imprint always remains, and this is what I love about our land: always exciting, the warmth even in a genre like black metal, as in this album.

Take off the blinkers and step forward because these guys will amaze you!