January 27th is the date established by Third I Rex for the release of ChaosWolf, the debut album from the Italian black metal band Innero, which was formed in 2016 by members of Malnatt and Bland Vargar. We are told that in creating the album Innero followed “a shamanic path of inner consciousness and renewal”, and thus it’s fitting that the first excerpt from the album, which we present today, is a song called “The Shaman“.
This is a song that wears the intensity of its emotions on its sleeve. The music is dramatic, and scarring, and seems to reveal the deep scars of its creators’ own suffering and disappointments.
The emotional power of the song is matched by the sharp and heavy intensity of the sound. Blasting drums, crashing cymbals, and roiling tremolo riffing provide the launching point, but as the song unfolds the riveting drum work constantly transforms — tumbling, battering, erupting in hyper-fast fusillades — and a beefy bass line surfaces with a thrusting pulse.
The threads of memorable melody are dire and dismal but mesmerizing. The mood edges into wistful heart-ache, and surges into a desolate agony. And speaking of revealing scars, the vocalist’s howls and yells of pain and rage are absolutely wrenching, accounting for much of the music’s emotional potency.
Of the album as a whole, Third I Rex refers to “the epic sounds of Primordial and Bathory, the violence of Immortal, the mesmerising soundscapes of Ulver and Dissection“.
Pre-orders for this very promising album are available now:
PRE-ORDER:
https://3rdirex.bandcamp.com/album/chaoswolf