TRISKELIS is the brainchild of Italian metalist, Sergio Vinci (LILYUM, OIGRES). On January 20, 2021 he issued the digital release of the project's second album, "Malicon." The album is eight instrumental tracks with three basic instruments: bass, drums, synth - four if you include computer augmentation. There are no lead or rhythm guitars, no vocals, no choirs. This album is bare, somber, and ultimately intriguing. When you come to this party, leave your expectations at the door and enter with an open mind.

Sergio has stated that with "Malicon" he was trying to create "a new language, a new and different music, the absence of a voice dictated by the need to not yet hear mouths that speak." With that he succeeds, though the album isn't so much musically experimental as it is emotionally explorative. And when I say emotional, I mean melancholic. The title, "Malicon," though not an actual word at all, is a derivative of the word "melancholy." I should mention that all the song titles are pseudowords, though there may be a relation between their phonemes and the ambiance of the songs themselves.

Let me get this out of my system before I get on with the review: When I think of all bass songs, I think of SPINAL TAP's "Big Bottom." But that's not this album at all in. In fact, I may have just committed unpardonable blaspheme by invoking such a comparison. Forgive me father for I have sinned. There, I feel better. Now on with the review.

The album kicks off with a short intro, "Inrot." This is synth and echo chamber distortion with no percussion. Think down-tuned wounded whale. The next seven tracks are more visceral and lively. Surprisingly, there is no outro, though the last track does end on a long synth fade. In the third track, "Mosar," Sergio does attain a sonic rendering that does sound a lot like a low-tuned rhythm guitar although I doubt that's what he was going. I mean the same way that hard core vegetarians typically aren't interested in meat-flavored anything, I think the effects Sergio is approximating are more about conveying an abstraction than a riff.

I'm not going to talk about standout tracks or favorite songs, because this isn't that album either. This is a film by Bergmann, a play by Beckett, a painting by Wols. The album itself is a standalone piece and should be taken in with mild doses of absinthe, in the dark, alone. And that, my friends, is as solid a recommendation as I can give. Enjoy.