vote
6.5
They come from Abruzzo, with a load of vintage thrash metal, where the old school marks the pace with Slayer, Exodus and Sepultura covering the thickest edges of the entire proposal. They are Ultima Sentenza, based in Pescara, born in 2019 from an idea of guitarist Guido D'Agostino and drummer Matteo Giancristofaro, both already active in Condanna in the late '90s. Together with them, Pietro Di Nardo, former voice of Condanna and Necrowar and Gianluca Iannotti as bassist.
The idea was to pay homage to those who have shaped thrash since its primordial forms, each obviously with its own characteristics: that of Sepu is more brutal, that of Exodus is more grim, and finally that of Slayer is more malignant.
In their own way, therefore, Ultima Sentenza, in their first official full-length, the present here “Mondi Fatta di Carta”, have borrowed the stylistic features of the old guard, combining it with their own dose of experience, creating a record, on a purely instrumental level , very respectable. The harsh riffs of the opener “Sporca uniform” mixed with the sharp riffs of the following “Lacrima”; the rocky midtempos of “Fumeroi” and “Chiusi Dentro” are the demonstration of how the Abruzzo group knows the material well, also demonstrating very good preparation from a practical point of view.
What unfortunately clashes, revealing itself as a sore point of the album, is the vocal system: we know well how it is not easy to transport Italian singing onto the rhythmic tracks of certain genres and in this IN.SI.DIA were – and remain all 'now – one of the most successful examples in this sense. For their part, Ultima Sentenza, by launching their personal denunciation against society, partially achieve their objective. It is not so much the choice to sing in the mother tongue, in fact, but rather the way in which it is done: Nardo's uvula remains far too static, flat in several points, thus dampening the impact of what should instead be the decisive touch for calibrate the invective on duty well. And it is precisely this static nature that penalizes the great totality of the pieces: a shame because, we repeat, the basis for making a compact and direct album was well present.
Ultima Sentenza remain, despite their name, worthy of being listened to again in the future, hoping for a better approach behind the microphone.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM