Opera IX
Anphisbena

Why is it that even among the most attentive admirers of Black Metal, those, I mean with the broadest possible views and who don't have just the "bible" of the "True Norwegian-genre" on their nightstand, no one has ever cared for Opera IX?
Why do most who listen to symphonic Black Metal think it stops only (and superficially) at Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir or a few other foreign bands?

Besides these two colossal bands, there's so much more, more varied and valid, in some ways even better and genuine, that doesn't easily succumb to commercialism but shuns it, not by choice naturally, but due to its own original attitude, and talent. Yes, precisely because of talent, considering that the Italians Opera IX (originally from Turin), combine a taste for Black Metal with a paganism that, forgive the somewhat misplaced comparison, is "militant," and with truly fascinating Celtic and barbaric atmospheres.
Perhaps they are ignored by most precisely for this reason: they are original, have a wealth of attitude and talent to offer, are cultured, speak and perform for an elite audience and do not debase their image in easy clichés of vampirism or lycanthropy, striving never to fall into superficial gaudiness.

But, setting aside all the things concerning the band's image, which are anyway trivial and relative concepts, it can be well said that Opera IX is an entity that, if well supported, could represent a source of pride in the Italian extreme scene.
Their very distinctive sound, their exquisite technique, their complex, hermetic and fleetingly delirious and ancestral songwriting are astonishing. Each song on this album is a black pearl, complex, supported by a base of keyboards and synths that perfectly meld with the numerous tempo changes of the guitars and drums, the genre-typical flares, the acidic and well-structured screams of the singer, the then epic, blurred, gloomy and unhealthy moments, although not stereotypical.
But there are many things to be found in the band that once counted Cadaveria (now in the eponymous group) among its members and that, even from their very first attempt, highlighted an uncommon originality, although it was the offspring of typical Black Metal concepts and ways.

But the days of Cadaveria have passed; today, the band's main composer (and mastermind) Ossian seems to have embarked on a path that deviates significantly from the blasphemous proposal of their origins, offering to all those willing to be enveloped by the sound of Opera IX, tracks of the caliber of "The Serpent's Nemeton," "In Hoc Signo Sanguinis," or the infinitely Celtic inspiration of "Scell Lem Duib," sung entirely in Gaelic and which in its basis, precisely takes up a folk chant of that tradition, endowing it then with a fascinatingly melancholic and shamanic vein that is envelopingly sublime, or finally "One Road in Asa Bay," a cover of Bathory, and performed in a way that, for once, does not make you regret the still admirable original.

And so, not to go on much longer, because it is certainly pointless, why don't you do yourself a favor and rush to find this album, or maybe one of the previous ones (of which, if I will have the will, I will certainly talk), doing yourself the favor of not thinking for once, that Italian bands are not capable of composing music that is on par with those of Albion or Scandinavia?
If you think this, then certainly, by discovering Opera IX you might change your mind; otherwise, you would have still supported and delighted in an album certainly out of the ordinary and that isn't "everyday," even if no one ever rushes to crown it or extol its lavish praises.