Remains In A View
Elegies

It's always a pleasure to notice how the Italian alternative scene is growing, also thanks to Italian labels that have ideas and potential to bring to light names that would otherwise undeservingly fall into oblivion.

The partnership between Remains In A View and Memorial Records is therefore a kind of bomb for those – like myself – who love to dive into the underground in search of something worthy. And “Elegies” – the full-length debut for the Sulmona combo – certainly is.

It's an album that will bring joy to those nostalgic for that hardcore/metal from the early new Millennium, which once shed off the cumbersome metalcore attire managed to evolve towards “post” shores. On the other hand, Remains In A View have all it takes to allow themselves such an approach: guitarists skilled in juggling prog-oriented riffs with other more heavy-oriented sections that add weight to everything, an inspired and intelligent rhythm section if only to avoid falling into the easy trap of “breakdowns”, and finally a screamer who richly deserves the accolade of the album's superstar for how he passionately interpreted a conceptually structured work as far as the lyrics go.

People like August Burns Red, early The Ghost Inside, and Misery Signals have certainly given them important stylistic inputs, to the point of making “Elegies” an album with a strong international flavor. The work done on the sounds first in the Roman Hell Smell Studios and then by Vanara has definitely helped, giving the songs precise entities and crystal-clear sounds that suit the quintet's style well. “Crossing The Line” and “Left Undone” are frontal attacks that blend well with examples of sobriety like “Sleepwalker Blues”, an instrumental interlude that provides a breath of fresh air to a dark and claustrophobic album.

In seeking something that might be amiss, we could perhaps mention the word courage, often and willingly absent in this episode, but considering it's a debut, it wouldn't make much sense to highlight it. The future of this group from Sulmona is undoubtedly very promising; what matters now is not to become stagnant in terms of ideas on what they have done in this debut, but instead to open the doors to experimentation and that hunger for novelty that every musician has within themselves.

Have courage guys, the foundations to make the project even more exciting are all there.