DISAMARA is an Atmospheric Black Metal band from Italy that just formed in 2018. First of all, I'd like to say congratulations on releasing their first LP, I can tell they put a lot of time and effort into this album. You can definitely tell it's a debut album, but overall the production is really solid and I commend them for finding a good balance. Usually Black Metal bands love making their sound as "lo fi" as possible, but this album sounds crisp and clear. Maybe that'll piss off some of the hardcore Black Metal bands, but personally, I prefer a more modern clear sounding production.

Rather than discuss the individual songs I feel it prudent that I focus on the overall sound and flow of the album. This is an album that begs you to listen through the entire thing in one sitting, and being only 44 minutes long it's an easy thing to do.

Most of the songs begin with furious guitar riffs and immense guitar work. The wall of sound created by the drums, guitar and bass is well balanced in the mix allowing us to hear every instrument. "Rivelazione" is a great example of this. The extended opening guitar riff creates wonderful tension so that when the song really kicks in, we're off on what feels like a furious mission of survival and revenge at a ridiculous clip, approaching 200 bpm at times and possibly even eclipsing that.

I don't mean this as a criticism, but most of the tracks follow a pretty similar formula sometimes to the album's strength and sometimes to its detriment. This album picks a straight path and drives right to it. Now when the album does slow down, you can catch your breath and enjoy some lovely acoustic guitar licks, that brings us to a doomier place. One of the reasons I like Atmospheric Black Metal is for the marriage of Doom and Black Metal, completing a unique subgenre. My biggest complaint about this album is that it could embrace that Doom and even Gothic side a little more often; the acoustic guitar and atmospheric synth sections are my favorite parts of the album. Now that being said, this album is very consistent; none of the songs stand out to me as straying from the path or bringing down the rest of the album. If you want 44 minutes of fast-paced Black Metal, with touches of Doom here and there, I promise you will enjoy this album.

Let's talk about the mix/production. I really like this mix overall, it's punchy and I can pretty much hear everything through the wall of sound. Now the drums sound a little off, especially during slower sections. I'm guessing they are either sampled or just made by a computer, in either case whoever edited the drum parts together did an excellent job and I praise them. It's mostly the kick that needs a little adjustment in the EQ, and in some places the snare could use a little work, but believe me I know how difficult it can be to mix and especially to EQ percussion.

I suppose what irks me is there are these absolutely gorgeous moments, where the music slows down and the synth gets involved and as much as I love me some Black Metal, this is Atmospheric Black Metal and I like a little more space, and Psychedelia personally.

Therefore, this album gets big points from me for being a debut album and having so much potential. Every moment of this album feels lovingly crafted, as if the end product is exactly what the creator wanted. If that turned out to be true I would say to the creator, good job, this sounds great. I like this style enough, but even at 44 minutes it wears on me and I think I know why. This album doesn't have many hooks, in the traditional sense. There are certain chords and rhythms that are revisited that certainly have an impact, but there aren't any real choruses or catchy melodies and unfortunately that is to the album's detriment.

Now some songs I do want to comment on, possibly favorite song on the whole album is "La Cantata Deli Scorno." This one has a good sampling of everything this album is trying to do. Blazing speed, furious riffs, but then there's synth and acoustic guitars and rich atmosphere. Also for whatever reason I enjoy the vocals the most on this song.

Now I'm not used to grading an album this way. I'm used to either giving each individual song a score or giving the album an aggregate, but one of the categories I'm grading this album is memorability and unfortunately I think that is the album's Achilles heel. The musicianship on display is excellent, I can tell these guys know some music theory and have a good understanding of chordal structure. The songs just aren't memorable sadly.

Okay quick aside, if there's one single element I do not care for here it's the vocals, I'm sorry I can be a little picky sometimes with my harsh vocals and I know exactly how difficult it is to sing like that throughout an album. Sometimes it feels more like yelling than actual growling and I definitely prefer when the growls sound more animalistic. I'm biased as well because I usually prefer higher pitched black metal screams, but regardless, this guy's voice just doesn't do it for me. I'm by no means saying he's "bad" his voice just isn't my cup of tea.

Like I said, for a debut album this is impressive and even more so considering this is a one man project. I appreciate Maur's vision and I think he has a bright future in atmospheric black metal. My two biggest pieces of advice for him are these: 1) if you want your work to stand out in the Black Metal scene, you need hooks, you need something that stands out and grabs your listeners by the throat and I'm sorry, but this album does not have that. 2) decide whether you want to be Atmospheric Black Metal or just Black Metal, because I think this album as it stands will appeal to more traditional black metal fans, but not as much to fans of atmospheric black metal.