Laetitia in Holocaust - Fauci Tra Fauci (2019)

Artist: Laetitia in Holocaust

Album: Fauci Tra Fauci

Genre: Black Metal

Country: Italy

Label: Third I Rex

Preview Track

At first glance, Laetitia in Holocaust are a pretty conventional black metal band. In truth, they're not that unconventional on the third or fourth listen either, but they do find a way to stand out from the pack via the haze of mysticism that audibly hangs over the mix. The framework is normal, blast beats and scything tremolo picked guitars galore, but the harmonic balance between melody and just a bit of dissonance keeps things interesting. Fauci Tra Fauci opts out of raw production and jagged, extreme motifs in favor of smooth, slightly foggy production and sweeping instrumental movements. It may not be a direct classical influence, but there's a feeling of classical flare in the grandiose shifts within these songs. As a result it goes down very easily despite the coarse nature of the genre and the wonky bass fills that seem to appear in every track. Unlike a lot of their contemporaries, Laetitia in Holocaust have definitely taken a few classes on their instruments and it shows, making Fauci Tra Fauci a memorable record without necessarily stepping headlong away from the pack.

F A U C I T R A F A U C I

Cosmic Putrefaction - At the Threshold of the Greatest Chasm (2019)

Artist: Cosmic Putrefaction

Album: At the Threshold of the Greatest Chasm

Genre: Death Metal

Country: Italy/Australia

Label: I,Voidhanger Records

Preview Track:

Cosmic Putrefaction is one of several solo projects of Italian multi-instrumentalist G.G., and though I have yet to hear those other works, Cosmic Putrefaction is good enough to the point where I think I'll need to investigate this backlog. What initially jolted my interest was the fact that Brendan Sloan of Convulsing -easily one of my favorite contemporary extreme metal acts- was providing the majority of the vocals for this album; however what keeps me coming back is the entire package. It's an album that certainly lives up to its name, exuding a certain celestial quality from it's off-kilter onslaught. In a lot of ways it reminds of me a modernized version of Blessed Are The Sick-era Morbid Angel, with a very Azagthothian feel to how G.G. pairs stuttered, thrashy riffage together with more conventional death metal fare. Brendan unsurprisingly delivers a performance on par with the work in his own band, with his guttural lows feral but also wielding a good deal of emotion. Overall this album is a successful experiment, one that I hope comes together again to give us more excellent death metal. 

T H E U N H E A R D S H R I E K S