ILIENSES TREE is a Death/Black Metal band out of Cagliari, Italy. They formed in 2013 and, after a few demos over the years, released their debut full-length album, "Till Autumn Comes," on January 16, 2020. For inquiring minds, the name of the band refers to an ancient Nuragic people (reputedly a heathen shepherd-warrior population) who thrived during the Bronze and Iron Ages in central-southern Sardinia (the second largest island in the Mediterranean and one of the 20 political regions of Italy). The geographical reference, in turns, heralds back to older mythological sources. As far as the "tree" in the name, your guess is as good as mine, but it does lend itself to some cool interpretative logos with wicked branches and roots.
The album comprises seven tracks and spans over 51 minutes, which is impressive for a debut release. Musically, the album comes across as a rich mixture of Doom and Black, but that's a matter of opinion and really has no bearing on band's merits - which, btw, are substantial.

The two-guitar assault gives the band heavy depth and allows them to create variant but congruent riff-based melodies. They calibrate their approach with more craft than most, modulating from aggressive attacks to melodic harmonies to acoustic and keyboard renderings. Meanwhile, the vocals are consistently harsh and raw though they also shift tempo, which is refreshing. I mean a lot of vocalist are only capable to obtaining gutturals via velocity. Maurizio Meloni maintains his gutturals at any pace, slow or fast.

The album begins with a short organ intro, "A Different Season." Not sure who performs this, but it's foreboding with epic-inflected edges. As it reaches the climax, a backdrop of a thunderstorm edges in. The album then properly kicks off with Doom-laden "Autumn Falls." From here on out, each track times out at over seven minutes. With the third track, "Lower," the album shifts into what I would characterize as Doom/Black cadence, with blackened melodies off-set with long Doom sustains. Standout tracks are "Autumn Falls," "Lower," "The Black Tree," and "Blood." "Blood," the final track, is a gut-wrenching, boots of lead triumph and perfectly brings the album to a close. I love Claudio Kalb's bass work on this track.

Overall, "Till Autumn Falls" is an impressive debut album. The production values are strong, and the songwriting, combined with excellent performances by all, render an album that is both intellectually evocative and musically compelling.