Italian Black Metal quartet BURIAN have recorded a new studio album entitled "Rancore". This five-song album spans around thirty minutes and track lengths range from less than three minutes to over eleven minutes with each song beginning with the sounds of frigid winds coming clear through the speakers.

I've got to say that I'm not very impressed with any of the songs on this album except for the title track, "Rancore". The vocals range from a gravelly growl to the more common screeches that are hard to appreciate. If I had to guess, they either recorded this album in the studio with the first and only drum kit the drummer ever bought or possibly whatever random generic studio drum set was there at the time. There wasn't a shocking amount of variety in the style of drumming either although there were some nice up-tempo parts in most of the songs that included the use of the snare instead of the excessive amounts of typical bass-and-cymbal Black Metal percussions.

The guitar work across this album wasn't awful, but to me was fairly flat and lacked any impressive features. When each song got to the solos, they did not seem like they were put together very well and didn't really flow note-to-note. I felt like I was hearing the guitarist showcase what he could do instead of what he should do based on the progression of whichever particular song each solo was in.

Despite the lack of direction or originality with the album, I did like the clarity of the recording and each instrument and vocal track comes through crisply. I normally don't give much attention to the bass, but there were parts in songs throughout the album that the bass guitar was the only instrument playing at the time, and it actually sounded quite pleasant. The bass-only parts were slower and more melodic and therefore more enjoyable.

I don't dislike Black Metal, but I have to say that LICH KING had plenty of fodder during the writing of their song "Black Metal Sucks". Most of the stereotypes that give Black Metal a bad name (or a bad sound) are prevalent on "Rancore". Still, despite its name, "Rancore" cannot receive total hatred for being a bare-bones production in this genre. This is certainly some serious "kvlt" mvsic and I know that a lot of fans of Black Metal and BURIAN will appreciate this effort.<