SONUM, an Italian band that is full of orchestrations, arrangements and interludes mixed in with their Death Metal. "Visceral Void Entropy" has just been released with the help of Worm Hole Death Records. Nine complex and intricate tracks complete it. As they wanted to write in their biography, "The starting point is always Death Metal but without renouncing o the widening of musical horizons, fearlessly drawing on solutions typical of prog rather than psychedelia or post-rock, moving away from the most traditional stylistic elements of the genre. Between moments of controlled and reasoned violence, we let ourselves go to explosions of savagery, but also to moments of respite, of apparent calm or icy quiet, constantly impregnating the record with a pleasant restlessness... we hope that listeners can appreciate." Now after two years of hard work we will dig in and see if this is true and what this five-piece band is exactly about.

Starting out like the scene of a horror movie you are already on the edge of your seat with, "The Poison We Create." The music soon follows its nightmarish tale. Intricately it weaves for almost seven minutes. The deep growls continue on and slowly through, leading you into another dreamy seven minutes.

The third song, "The Call," is a short peaceful piece but that peace is soon broken, and we are back up to speed again. You can really "feel the breath of the band" again in its follow up. All of the next few songs are over six minutes each, each a chapter standing alone on its own. Some fast, some eerily slow with pianos, organs and acoustic guitars coming in around the Metal.

The added sound effects are added very well in all of the right places on this album. Each unique, nothing too repetitious. It helps tell the story and I would say that their goals that they mentioned above were achieved. There is a lot going on here musically, but it works. It really sets the mood. One of the last songs, "Desolation," could almost be a PINK FLOYD song, a nice surprise bonus. All of these guys are great musicians and the success here is a solid team effort.