Rosetta
The Galilean Satellites (Combined)

I introduce myself to the world of DeBaser with a kind of 'double review', in which I will try to examine the two sides of the (not so) emerging coin of the Rosetta gentlemen. The moniker, who knows why, brings me back to distant spaces, abstract, glowing, and unreachable dimensions... Paradoxically, from the name alone, one can understand Rosetta's goal, which is to forcefully drag you, sometimes with a powerful punch to the stomach or with an irresistible and hypnotic emotional flow that transports you to distant landscapes, from this planet and civilization...

They claim that their moniker has nothing to do with the Rosetta Stone, but was chosen for its beauty, grace, and femininity. However, Rosetta is also the name of a satellite used to study comets and a type of orbit, and ours are huge astronomy enthusiasts... So much so that, captivated by their acid, powerful, bastard, and infected riffs on one side by that post-hardcore that has influenced them so much (and I'm talking about the usual sacred monsters of the genre such as Neurosis and Isis, followed by names like Cult Of Luna and various clones :P), this time though contaminated by celestial, reflective, and hypnotic digressions that culminate in the most inspired space-rock (the band lists among their greatest influences the Stars Of The Lid). Many define Rosetta as space-metal, a sort of subgenre even more geared towards experimenting and psychedelia than the already ambiguous, mystical, and fascinating post-metal (a genre with which they are often identified anyway).

And so they emerge from nowhere with this The Galilean Satellites, a project I tend not to consider a double album, because it uses the same idea as Tribes Of Neurot, namely that of creating an album and its 'alternative version' that can be perfectly superimposed and listened to as a single record. Originally, they thought of creating a single CD that would combine in a truly sexy and irresistible union the two souls (the first more violent and direct, the second more reflective and 'disturbing') of their sound... It is truly fascinating the union of these two experiences, and I recommend everyone to try it, to bring to life your own 'Combined Version'.

Undoubtedly (though it doesn't always happen to me) the part that struck me the most, launched me into unknown universes, amid cold and total desolation, was the first one. The first and epic part of The Galilean Satellites is by no means simple, predictable, and characterized by the usual and unappealing reheated soup, but is a product of great respect, which captures the listener, willing or not, and forcefully drags them into a high-quality emotional whirlwind. Thus opens the first track after a brief intro oscillating between ambient and post-rock from which then erupts a vehement carpet of acrid riffs dominated by a powerful, extreme, and intense voice that pierces you from the first listen and never lets go... Thus follow all the five majestic tracks, dedicated to 'atmospheric sludge' always ready to decline, when needed, into reflective, ecstatic, and atmospheric moments... The heavy guitars thus dilute with well-placed splashes of drone and noise and long ambient/post-rock parentheses that wink (but not too much) at none other than the great Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Stand out in this ocean of sought-after and fine 'space melancholy', mighty and fascinating tracks like Dèparte and...

The subsequent jewel of rare beauty that follows (undoubtedly my favorite), Europa, which from the first riffs drags you into a hopeless, hyperrealistic and touching dimension that explodes in one of the most catastrophic and devastating finales of the entire record: sludge, psychedelia, and noise (a decidedly evocative trio) merge in the catharsis, at the highest point reached by the entire work... And who knows for how many days those desperate and disenchanted screams of the most inspired Michael Armine will continue to haunt me with his "The day of the red light pulls me out..."

Also of excellent craftsmanship are the colossi Itinérant and Au Pays Natal, among which the former even grants itself six minutes of fluid and hypnotic post-rock and is an uninterrupted stop and go of fury and atmospheric reflections...

I would probably have been happier and more satisfied if ours had left us like this, with the explosive Au Pays Natal, a track that stood as the perfect conclusion and symbol of their hybrid and majestic sound... But ours wanted to 'embellish' the material of the first disc with another five track-revisitations (same duration, similar structures) of the first part of the work in a drone/noise/ambient key.

In my opinion, they could very well have spared us the second disc... Unfortunately, it adds almost nothing to all that was good and compelling seen before, and so we find ourselves completely in front of another product (the other side of the coin I mentioned at the beginning of the review), sterile and overly ambitious (perhaps my judgment is even too damning), which tries to imitate with too many imperfections the masters of drone doom such as Earth, Boris, Khanate, Sunn O))) and... alas, I regret to say, boring the listener.

But with the captivating proposal to create a Combined Version, Rosetta regain the reins that for a moment were lost, the threads of a discourse that had been abruptly interrupted and even lead us to reevaluate this unexpressive second part, if fused with the momentum of the first... As in a kind of 'sound puzzle', the pieces of one of the best types of 'atmospheric post-hardcore' (also called the aforementioned 'atmospheric sludge metal') fit together with those of an intimate (but dull) droning doom metal, noisy and ambient...

The work is finished, there was indeed a lot on the plate, and ours (apart from certain style slips in the second disc, which still presents some interesting points) managed to pull out from their spaceship (under the guise of a cylinder) a highly valid product, imbued with a maturity difficult to find in the first album of one of those bands that risks proposing the same old story, and with a push and impeccable poetics...