I could only find a bit of biographical information on the band from their website, which looks to be still in the process of being updated. They state, “no introduction is necessary. Their music and performances speak for themselves. With their mix of Metal, Jazz, Brass, and Avant-Garde, OTTONE PESSANTE won international critical acclaim. Their newest album here, titled “Scrolls of War,” has seven songs. “Late Bronze Age Collapse” is first. It’s an odd and unique sound. The main riff is choppy and the background is filled with a bevy of strange sounds…at times, I think I hear a kazoo, and there is a crescendo of sound leading to the end. It’s “music,” but in a fairly loose description of that word.

“Sons of Darkness Against Sons of Shit” is about as weird as the title suggests, and it appears to be guitars and some other instruments making the sound. It is also fairly dissonant in nature, grey and cloudy, without much in the way of light. “Men Kill, Children Die” begins with what amounts to a distant rumble of thunder, and something wicked is on the horizon. The tension that the band creates and the overall sound remains dissonant…like a creature waiting indefinitely for its prey to cross its path. “Teruwah” has a heavy, choppy bottom end sprinkled with legato instruments over top, like bassoon and brass? I’m not entirely sure, but one thing that band has done well is intermixing these elements together.

“Battle of Qadesh” begins with jovial brass instruments and descends from clear skies to overcast ones with a shift from major to minor chords. The song spends much of its time living on the fringe of what one might think of when they think of music, and I don’t mean that as an insult. “Slaughter of the Slains” might be about kicking a man who is already down, if you take the title as literal. The sounds is even more imposing and dissonant, and the vocal screams are horrid. “Seven” closes the album, and it’s a short, strange song, with mostly brass instruments playing what sounds like scales to me. One thing about the album is abundantly clear…their approach to their music is both unique and personal. Their musicianship is strong, but one thing that I always struggle with this type of uncommon sound is being able to find an audience that would appreciate them. With a band this artistically free, that is best left up to each listener.