L'eterno maligno silenzio

Tenebrae In Perpetuum are a band from Italy that have been around since 2001. With three albums in their belt, they've been spreading their infection mostly through the label Debemur Morti Productions. For those that are used to Debemur Morti's bands they already know to expect some pretty violent black metal from Tenebrae. Their latest offering sounds like earlier 1349 mixed with the extremely low-fi production of the nineties that Darkthrone was so famous for. However, the difference between Darkthrone and Tenebrae is that Darkthrone produced a mid paced, black punk n' roll style that was slow enough so the distortion didn't get in the way. With Tenebrae's extreme take on black metal, the effect of trying to make things old school just ruins everything.

Most of "L'Eterno Maligno Silenzio" is performed with the intent of shattering glass. The guitars are usually hammering out speeding, high buzz saw licks with the guitars a steady monotone that sounds like a monkey beating on the kit. The vocals often match the intensity of the guitars, and even though they're all done in Italian, it is impossible to understand them anyway with the quality of the music the way it is. All the noise helps create an fog of distortion that covers the guitars and vocals, which are already covering the drums, so there's hardly much hope in trying to hear the drums. And no hope in hearing any bass. The music does not like to let up one bit for the most part so unless fans are used to extreme black metal in the likes of Sargeist and earlier Gorgoroth, this might not sit very well with their earhole.

However not all of the album is sonic pain. Near the end things start to show some clarity. "Rapitemi, Anime Della Natura" slows things down considerably to almost a blackened doom metal pace, giving a full look at all the instruments and how they actually sound in unity versus how they sound in chaos. There's little of the annoying vocals here and even what sounds to be a deep choir section which is a smack out of left field for the band, but effective to enhance the atmosphere all the same. The following track, "Oltre I Confini Umani," picks things up again but the vocals are more snarled than shrieked, making them much more tolerable, and the guitars still keep to a slower pace than usual to let the drums get ahead and bask away in their beating glory to be heard for once.

If one can get past the first six tracks, they may find "L'Eterno Maligno Silenzio" somewhat enjoyable to listen to. In their slower elements the band is much more effective to let the distortion settle and help create a haze that doesn't lessen the intensity of the music rather than keep it swirling and make a mess of everything. It would have been a lot stronger had they not tried to get ahead of themselves all the time.

Written for www.brutalism.com