DIESPNEA – Roots

vote
7.5

• Bands:
  DIESPNEA
• Duration: 00:55:41
• Available from: 02/13/2026
• Label:

• Code666

Streaming not yet available

A hot, sunny black metal, perhaps even 'insulated' (affected by sunstroke), and therefore under the effect of its symptoms: sense of dizziness, confusion and loss of consciousness.
Or, as the name of the group itself suggests, music that causes breathlessness, hunger for air, difficulty breathing: these are Diespnea, a young Italian duo who already made an interesting debut five years ago, entitled “Pneuma”, an album of atmospheric black metal – in the best sense of the term – personal and sufficiently contemporary, but far from this sequel, which shifts the stylistic coordinates to very other shores.
We are in fact in the area of ​​avant-garde black metal, a protected name above all could be the latest Dødheimsgard of “Black Medium Current”, but Diespnea are good at maintaining their own identity, without forced experiments or abstruse innovations, following their instinct and a passion that is absolutely palpable.

First of all, we must highlight the solar component, as we said, torrid, Mediterranean, marine – yes, even aquatic, because the compositions are also populated by scenarios and creatures from the pelagic world – but it is also possible to come across literary references, such as Pirandello's “Uno, Nuovi e Centomila” on the first piece “Maskharah”, exhaustive of this new course: tremolo picking, blast-beat and scream vocals as per the manual, but also clean singing, electronic drums and lots of melody.
Listening to the progress of the song, one could bring up the old In The Woods, Borknagar or Vintersorg, but everything is strongly filtered through a 'Latin' lens, above all thanks to a more rhythmic second part, on which are also placed a couple of solos rich in echoes and reverbs, used extensively throughout the album and which can lead back to the blackgaze of groups such as Alcest or Deafheaven, but more as a technical expedient than anything else, because the atmospheres, as already widely underlined, are of a completely different type.
The same could be said for example for Spite Extreme Wing: the use of Italian and some melodic choices could refer to “Vltra”, the swan song of the Genoese pioneers, but in truth we still remain at a certain distance.
The piece masterfully closes with Pirandello's quote on the duplicity of human relationships, on the need to wear masks that hide the true faces of people, now slaves to social conventions and determined to hide their true identity.
The ritualistic black metal of the second “L'Abbraccio del Serpente” is even more personal and interesting, thanks to the very successful insertion of a kind of ancestral dance in the middle of the song, which refers to the magical sound of one of the cornerstones of Southern European black, “Under The Moonspell” by Moonspell.
It's impossible not to also mention the subsequent composition “Vultures”, this time in English, with vaguely post-punk features and characterized by an ending with trip hop reminiscences that winks at the more eccentric and unpredictable Solefalds of “Neonism”, and the title track “Radici”, capable of living up to its title: Morriconian whistles, electronics and a moment of pure tension that even recalls the ending of “Trafitto” by CCCP.

The two members Wolke and Anxitudo divide tasks almost equally within the association, both in the composition and recording phases, and ensure technical preparation in line with what is required by the genre; The guitars are especially intriguing, very eclectic and unpredictable, the electronic parts are well constructed, the scream singing, the clean voices, the choirs are convincing. The deadly mixture of styles reveals knowledge of the classics, but above all the ability to look around very well: the horizon of the two musicians is that of the last decades and, unlike so much of the competition which tends to boast of originality but then remains firmly tied to the traditional Norwegian verb, they seriously manage to give that touch of brightness to their music which makes them, if not unique, absolutely particular.
Some mistakes in the use of the electronic drums and some empty passages in the eight long compositions that make up the album are unable to significantly affect the final judgment, which can only be set well above the passing mark: Diespnea do honor to Italian metal and place themselves without a shadow of a doubt on the higher quality side of experimental extreme metal.