Self Released -2011-Italy
When it comes to Dark Wave nowadays I must say that I like pretty much the music from this Italian project made by Stefano. The music that this guy makes is very interesting and when you follow his work from the first album until now, you can truly see the progress he makes. While on his past works he used a lot of the classical instruments, lately he started to use more and more choirs to build his music on. I think that this is a nice idea and that this detail gives to the song a special touch and deeper moments than just by using instruments. On his newest release there are 8 songs from which mostly are cover versions. Again, you can find here his cover version of the Burzum song “Dunkelheit” and of “Mother North” from Satyricon. Beside these cover versions, you can find here 2 more cover versions of some Burzum songs, one from Sopor Aeternus and one from Empyrium. The first song here is the cover version of the Empyrium song “The Ensemble of Silence”. I must say that it was really hard to recognize this song in this version, but I find that it is a great idea when you cover a song in your way instead of just playing it and say that this is your cover version of this song. The next one is the cover version of the Burzum song “Dunkelheit” which is maybe the calmest version of this song that I ever heard. The main instruments here are harps and acoustic guitar and they both give to this song a special feeling. The “Mother North” cover version is the one that sounds the most amazing. Entirely made as an orchestral song and slower than the original, it sounds very refreshing. The cover version of the Burzum song “Glemselens Elv” has a lot of choir, both male and female in it. This idea of using choirs to replace the riffs sounds very interesting in my opinion. The last Burzum cover version here on this record is the song “Illa Tidandi” from Vargs ambiental phase while he was in prison. Stefano made an orchestral version with choirs out of it, instead using only the keyboard to make this song. I can’t say much about the version of “Shadowsphere” because I didn’t heard the original version of it so it is hard for me to speak about this one. Again, this one has plenty of choirs in it and I guess that they replace some instrument like in the case of the previous two songs. “Beyond the gates of Night” is a song which fits more in the Wolfuneral style that I know from the first album, but with some new ideas. The last track here on this record is the cover version of the “Silent Hill” main theme. I must say that it sounds very creepy. It is not dark or something like that, it is the opposite of it and that is what makes it so creepy in my opinion. That a song made so calm and “heavenly peacefully” to say it so can have a creepy atmosphere.
9/10
