It's been quite a period now that I'm a bit away from all that is Black Metal, because I rather prefer the first wave of bands from the 80/90's. When I received the album "Calix. Utero. Babalon" of the band NECROMASS for a review, I immediately thought that it will be a very good experience for me, since the Italians are considered as one of the cult bands by many underground fan.

This album actually marks the group's return to activity after 11 years off. The style is a very raw Black Metal, spiced with pleasant melodies unlike most Scandinavian Black Metal bands using mostly darker passages. The progressive aspect of the arrangement is very present and shows an old school vision and very personalized. The riffs have some doom effect with a little heavy tempos, but beautifully majestic and fast for most of the time.

Listening to the album several times, I never doubt that NECROMASS is one of the most respected bands in this kind of extreme Metal. All the song is very well thought out. My preferred pieces are "Dawn of Silver Star" or the wonderful song "Stellae Rubae" with harmonics part of a hand and blast beats on the other hand. All this is presented with a very clean production that keeps the raw side.

The reformation of NECROMASS after 11 years gave us this wonderful album. Sometimes you have to take all these years of rest to recover the sense of creation, a principle confirmed with these Italian Black Metallers.