vote
6.5
- Band:
CAINITES - Duration: 00:45:07
- Available from: 21/06/2024
- Label:
-
Scarlet Records
Pale shroud-chewers, ears pricked up, a new, miasmatic breeze blows from the crypt: it's called “Revenant”, the debut of the Tuscan Cainites.
The duo – Daniele Ciranna (guitar and bass) and Frater Orion (vocals, drums, keyboards) – splits their time between Deathless Legacy and Motus Tenebrae: it should therefore come as no surprise that they have a certain fascination with dark and horrific themes, expressed through twilight melodic death metal, ideally somewhere between the work of Death SS, the majestic granite of Septicflesh, Tribulation's “The Children Of The Night” for atmospheres and some melodic passages and The Vision Bleak, with a sprinkling of Paradise Lost to season it all (especially in some passages marked by dirty/clean vocals and instruments), as well as a latent but never dormant love for more classical heavy metal, especially evident in some solos (“God's Wrath”); listen for example to the combo “Theotokos”/”Vampire God”, one of the album’s best moments, for a taste of how all these influences are combined by the two musicians.
The concept around which the three-quarters of an hour of music unfolds develops around the story of an Orthodox priest who, against his will, is transformed into a vampire, including spiritual and faith dilemmas, an unstoppable thirst for blood and the resulting torment: a story that, starting from the promotional photos with the two artists in pitch-black Orthodox clothes and regulation vampire makeup, filters leadenly into the whirling, circular “Forgive Our Sins”, into the lightning-fast title-track or into the litany “Embrace”, accompanying, at least in intentions, into a gothic novel where theology and instinct coexist in eternal conflict.
Just like in some stories, however, not everything works: in this case, there is a general 'rustiness' in the songs, with the more death metal parts interlocked with more sumptuous and/or evocative moments a bit forcedly (“Forsaken”, “Redemption”), in addition to a production that highlights too much the hoarse voice of Frater Orion, often and willingly flattening the rest of the instruments in the background. Maybe by working a bit more on labor limae and finding a different keystone on which to support the structure of the songs (maybe playing even more on the contrast between hoarse growl and clean choirs, and putting them even more in relation with the instrumental section) our guys could really have their canines sharpened to the point of biting the throat of many unaware listeners.
For now we appreciate the idea and the intentions (branded Scarlet Records), we wait to see how long the shadow of the Cainites will become.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM