(written by Islander)
We are told that the Italian black metal band Calvana was established in 2015 at the foot of the Calvana massif, an imposing mountainous ridge north of Florence, and that the band exists “solely to amplify the voice of the mountain as a singular, monolithic entity”. On March 20th Adirondack Black Mass will release Calvana’s third album, Sub Janus.
The press materials for the album evocatively describe the music:
As trend-free as ever, the record captures the primal rage of the peaks and the elemental wrath of nature, forged in the fires of old-school black metal. Rough and robust, their roiling screeds of fury remain as potent as ever, locating that ever-elusive balance between the cryogenic and the lava-like. All instruments hold equal weight in their rustic, all-analog soundfield – particularly bass guitar, an instrument often relegated to nonexistence in black metal – further grounding Calvana’s elemental nature.
You’ll be able to appreciate these claims by listening to the second song from the album released for listening so far, “Summer Storm“, which we’re premiering today with an unsettling lyric video.
The video is visually frightening, but the words themselves are its most unsettling feature. Rather than sung, they are slowly and clearly declaimed in a deep, ragged, gravel-toned voice that seems to echo from within a cavern hall. It is by turns grim and ferociously tormented.
The lyrics are open to interpretation, but could be understood as the inner thoughts of a beleaguered ancient entity abandoned by its children (or its worshippers, or its god), confused about what to do, but ultimately rising in strength from imposing depths.
You could guess from the song’s title that the music will storm, and indeed it does, but not immediately. In its opening phase, after thunder rumbles and rain drenches, the vibrating riffs whine and slowly writhe in misery around steadily thumping beats and dismally murmuring bass notes. Voiced with a guitar tone that’s simultaneously rough and piercing, the music thus creates an ill miasma of emotional oppression and hopelessness.
In a transitional phase the chords seem to blare in agony, and the drums vividly tumble — the precursor to the storm that then breaks open. When the storm does break, with drums furiously blasting and the bass vividly slithering and throbbing, the riffing still writhes, but much faster, channeling contortions of madness and despair, as do the vocals, which wretchedly howl “A storm roars outside and a storm burns inside!”
From within the song’s intense and disorienting gales of tumult and torment a lead guitar ascends, whirring and whirling, and itself creating sensations of fragmenting distress and dangerous madness.
The song, in both its music and its words, is frightening and it leaves a haunting impact. Even its storming chills the skin. The music strikingly captures its likely inhuman protagonist’s desolation and its ultimate defiance.
Adirondack Black Mass will release Sub Janus on digipack CD format and digitally. Find more info via the links below, and also listen to the first song disclosed from the album, “Death of Pan“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://adirondackblackmass.bandcamp.com/album/sub-janus
CALVANA:
https://www.facebook.com/calvana
https://calvana.bandcamp.com