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buioingola

Dopo l'Apnea

Written by: MST on 30/01/2014 16:01:20

Italy's buioingola and their debut album "Dopo l'Apnea" has been a proper challenge for me to deal with. It always feels natural to approach an album by comparing a band's style and soundscape to similar bands in order to isolate the important things that stand out, in negative or positive ways. So when pretty much everything on "Dopo l'Apnea" stands out from everything else, it doesn't matter how much I like what I'm hearing when it seems like this Italian trio has invented a completely new style. In other words: buioingola have surprised the hell out of me with this album, and I love it.

"Dopo l'Apnea" is a 35-minute experimental beast on which the band mix atmospheric sludge metal with industrial black metal and add some droning guitars here and there, and after dropping all of those genretags I still don't feel like I'm doing the sound justice. It is a style which is difficult to get into if you're not already a fan of this kind of extreme metal, but the 5 songs on the album are very rewarding for those who can appreciate what's being presented. The sound of the guitars is heavily affected by various pedals, creating a rich, dense, almost wall of sound-like atmosphere throughout the album. The drums go from a simple, slower sludgy style through hammering blastbeats and back again all the time, often in a very unpredictable manner, wasting no time getting too comfortable at any one point. On top of everything else, the vocals provided by Diego Chuhan consist of loud, hollow yelling; it's simple, but extremely well done, adding a sense of overpowering isolation to the band's sound.

The album could easily be split into two sections: the first contains four tracks ranging from 3 to 6 minutes in length, with each track focusing on malevolent destruction and despair. Songs like "Candida", with its immediate in-your-face mentality while still perfectly portraying feelings of desolation, and "Rigurtito", which starts with a long industrial intro and then breaks out into utter overwhelming devastation, really stand out as excellent tracks. The second section would be "Oceano", the 15-minute closing track that differs somewhat from the rest of the album. Parts of the song are reminiscent of the rest of the album, but atmospheric passages interspersed between the intense parts make the song a much more intricate, and delicate piece.

"Dopo l'Apnea" is one of those albums by an unknown band that just takes you by surprise because of its emotional depth and the creativity and ingenuity behind it. Parts of the band's sound is reminiscent of something most have heard before, but the way the genres have been mixed up is pretty much unique, at least as far as I've been able to gather. For a debut album, that is an amazing feat. If buioingola can keep building upon their sound on further releases, we're in for a treat.

Download: Candida, Rigurgito, Oceano
For The Fans Of: Tombs, Altar of Plagues, Year Of No Light
Listen: Facebook

Release date 05.10.2013
Self-Released