MIASMATA – Subterrania

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7.0

• Bands:
  MIASMATA
• Duration: 00:39:00
• Available from: 10/31/2025
• Label:

• Naturmacht Productions

Streaming not yet available

A black metal band with very strong heavy influences or a heavy band with a black character: it's difficult to say which definition best suits Miasmata, the solo project of New Zealand guitarist Mike Wilson. One thing, however, appears unequivocal: his one-man band is a space of absolute creative freedom, in which he can express ideas that would probably clash in his other projects – both with the atmospheric majesty of Sojourner and with the melancholy à la Paradise Lost by Orphans of Dust.
Ideas that pass above all through his guitar, which in Miasmata becomes an extension of the body and spokesperson of the imagination: a wild, extroverted and chatty guitar, sometimes a little cumbersome, but always fun. Undisputed master of the scene, she drags the listener into the underground journey narrated in “Subterrania”, Wilson's second album under this moniker, yanking him into a daring adventure in search of the mythical flame capable of bringing a people condemned to darkness back to the surface.

“Subterrania” is a roller coaster ride about forty minutes long: it rushes from the Norwegian tradition, takes a loop around the legacy of Maiden, then a sharp bend towards Tribulation and finally slides between speed and almost power influences, passing through at least three and a half decades of the Atlantic.
The moments of breathing are few, the ideas are many. “Those Who Cross The Flame”, for example, is an unpredictable and very rich digression, which from Darkthrone and Satyricon of the beginning of the millennium lands on a vocal line bordering on melodic-hardcore, in a blaze of solos of clear heavy inspiration.
It is precisely the heavy suggestions that constitute the most interesting feature of this latest effort, also distinguishing it from the previous “Unlight: Songs of Earth and Antrhopy” (Naturmacht, 2021). After a more blatantly black debut, Wilson here seems to favor a more hybrid and melodic approach, unleashing his nose for riffs in search of solutions catchy and sometimes a little nostalgic.
In this sense, the enjoyable “Full Of The Devil” stands out, with its guitar work designed to keep you glued to your ears, and the maximalist “Upon Oppressive Peaks”, which combines speed nuances with reminiscences of Mastodon.

The concept, which refers to the movements of the subsoil and the incessant volcanic activity that boils under the earth's crust, could not be more apt: in “Subterrania”, Miasmata truly presents itself as a cauldron of resources and inventiveness – perhaps even too much, getting out of hand, from time to time, to its creator.
Furthermore, the rather original synthesis of known elements is not enough to completely dispel the feeling that Miasmata is more than anything 'just' (the quotation marks are clearly a must) a nice exercise in style, pleasantly nestled in its dimension as a solo project and not too anxious to conquer the outside world, the object of its compelling quest in album form.