vote
7.5
- Band:
Amalekim - Duration: 00:38:11
- Available since: 02/05/2025
- Label:
-
Avantgarde Music
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The artistic journey of the Amalekim continues with this third “Shir Hashirim” after the good “Avodah Zarah” of 2023 which had a bit refounded the band in terms of sound and training. We immediately feel continuity with respect to the predecessor, even if it is almost immediately evident that the Italian-Polacca band has not stopped artistically. In fact, if the overall proposal is the same – that is, Black Metal Furibondo who looks on the one hand to Watain and Dissection and on the other the Polish Black Metal of Mgla and Blaze of Little – there are different accents in the compositions of the Amalekim, in particular more dissonant and modern influences related to both the black and a certain type of limic Death metal.
ATTENTION: It is not our intention to define the proposal of ours as Black/Death, on the contrary, given that we remain in full black metal, modern but fierce and almost always accelerated and blast-beat territory. If in the first certain gallops supported by the battery they cannot fail to remember the work of the Dissection (the Open “Chant I: Ra'al Zorem” is a good example), in the seconds the mostuialist imprint of the most recent Mayhem emerges and obviously of the aforementioned Watain.
Rather, in moments of dissonance here and there they emerge 'other' influences, whether they are inserted in the complex game of riff or in repeated and choral structures (we think of the final “Chant VIII: Mishteh Malkhuti”) which approach a wider way to conceive and not only limited to black metal.
“Shir Hashirim” therefore proves to be a simple disc listening but also structurally complex if you want to deepen it with repeated steps and this is ultimately its long -term strength. The arrangements, the subtleties on the riffs and on the battery parts, the important presence of the bass that clearly emerges in the final mixing and a certain vocal versatility.
The element of absolute continuity remains the biblical, philosophical and in some way erudite concept that is held very far from the usual clichés, an aspect we have appreciated again.
What's wrong? Almost nothing, even if we would have preferred the most related moments to the atmosphere (like at the beginning of “Chant V: Tanur Nitchi”) and some less furious songs and more similar to some parts of the final “Chant VIII: Mishteh Malkhuti”. The Amalekim are accompanying their musical growth with a lot of live activities, so the next step will be to verify the effectiveness of what has been done in the studio on Italian and European stages, since we are really faced with a good reality that we hope to see again grow again, perhaps with a record just a little more varied.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
