Black Metal History Month - Ponte Del Diavolo : "Blades From the Tomb"

 

This Italian band is doing something different. Well to an extent. Hexvessel did make a black metal album with sung vocals last year, this band is taking that and giving it a more dissonant spin. Though there is plenty of melody to be found. They are taking post-punk and colliding it with black metal. Once again, it's not the first time thanks to Tombs, but this is done with this band's thumbprints. Proving you do not have to totally remake the wheel, to create relevant new music. Their singer will use harsher accents to the vocal but generally sings with moody melodic flare. 

Things take a turn towards doom on "Red as the sex of She who lives in death". This is a logical sonic step. Over the course of this epic, they manage to find their way back into the more blasty side of black metal. However, this is only one color they use to shade the song. They stay on this darker almost more progressive path until accelerating back into the blast of "La Razza". " They take post-punk tense and make it groove before throwing against the more aggressive black metal undercurrent. They dig into this with varying levels of heaviness. This is more of a mood rather than some of the more overt artists we have covered during Black Metal History Month this year. 

It does take me a few minutes to realize that "Zero" is not the previous song, meaning that even when doing things as interesting as this band does you can still fall into the lull of a uniformity in your sound. We can blame the blast beats. Male vocals add a new color to "The Weeping Song" which closes the album more intentionally. I will give this album a 9.5, and see how it grows on me. If you like goth, post-punk, black metal or doom, this is worth your time. 

pst76