SHIVER DOWN – The Void Supreme

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7.0

• Band:
  SHIVER DOWN
• Duration: 00:42:15
• Available from: 04/30/2024

The roots of this “The Void Supreme” must be sought in the Nineties, the decade in which gothic metal saw the light and developed in its infinite facets, from the death-doom origins of pioneers Paradise Lost, Anathema and My Dying Bride to the more alternative one of the end of the decade, represented by our own Lacuna Coil. A flourishing movement and a golden age dominated by key figures such as Waldemar Sorytcha, capable of producing for Century Media many of the most significant works of the period, from Tiamat to Moonspell, from Sentenced to Samael, from The Gathering to Lacuna Coil, and who it would have been interesting to see at work also on this “The Void Supreme”, which harks back to that period and those bands, and with which the Veronese Shiver Down rightly try – given their skills – to rise to the honors of the limelight.
An extremely varied world, that of gothic metal, which can hardly be summarized in a precise formula, unless we refer to the catchiest side of the genre, characterized by the classic alternation between female voice and growl singing and by sweet and persuasive keyboards to temper melancholic guitar riffs with a low tuning. Shiver Down keep well away from this style, settling instead on a crossover between gothic and death metal, without female voice and with a certain predisposition in the riffing for the melodic sound of Gotëborg, quite evident on songs like “Nether Reality” and “In Your Absence”.
The alternation between almost black scream vocals and Pete Steele-like baritone singing is very reminiscent of Fernando Ribeiro of Moonspell on “Wolfheart”, but the sound is closer to that of “The Antidote”, while the mix between melodic death and gothic harks back to the Trail Of Tears of the “Free Fall Into Fear” and “Existentia” periods, where the clean and growling male voices of Kjetil Nordhus and Ronny Thorsen alternated. Other points of reference are certainly Amorphis of the late singer Tomi Joutsen and Dark Tranquillity of the darker songs of the second period of their career.
Federico Dalla Benetta, also the voice of Riul Doamnei, gave a very positive performance, as did the guitars of Francesco Gamberini and Al Pia, well accompanied by the solid rhythm section made up of Skanners bassist Tomas Valentini and Gabriele Cardilli's drums; in several moments, the synthesizers give colour and add personality to the compositions, such as on the closing piece “Dreams Left Behind”.
An album full of great ideas and certainly enjoyable to listen to; what is missing is just a little more fluidity in the composition: the songs are interesting and moderately engaging, but on some occasions they can seem more like a collage, of good – and even excellent – ideas, rather than finished songs; in short, a pinch of homogeneity and coherence in the writing is missing. However, this gives a certain unpredictability, which is never a bad thing, and the courage to want to propose something personal and not a mere copy of other works must certainly be rewarded. In the most successful songs, such as the opening song “Divine”, the single “Dead Silence” or the fifth, beautiful, “The Beauty Of Slumber”, this inconvenience is decidedly less noticeable and everything in fact flows beautifully. Let's be clear, it's not a question of alternating between hard and melodic parts, which are the lifeblood of gothic and melodic death and a bit of a secret of metal in general, it's that sometimes, as for example on the sixth track “Tourniquet”, the different passages of the song are slightly forced, although impactful. However, this does not affect the final value of the album, which remains of a high level and is appreciated for its ability to restore lustre to a genre that has fallen a bit in quality compared to the glories of the Nineties.
An album that can appeal to a wide range of fans, from extreme metal to the more classic; what is needed is a certain predisposition for the most changing, tormented and persuasive atmospheres that metal can offer.