After the cruel days of Covid-19’s pandemic, there are many acts releasing new material for the first time by now (a year after WHO stated that the pandemic was over). Italy suffered a lot during the early days on the early days of the rise of the pandemic (I still remember of watching on internet the Italian Army taking dozens of caskets of the dead due Sars-Cov-2 infection from a church to a cremation site, and it was truly a sad event). Maybe this is the reason for the Italian trio VOLTUMNA taking five years to release “For Death is Fate”, their latest EP.

Phersu (the band’s bass player and vocalist, and a known studio sound engineer) produced, recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered the songs, using an impacting, aggressive and nasty model for the EP’s sonority. On other hand, the things were modeled to have a defined way, so there are no difficulties when hearing the songs, because it’s easy to understand what’s being played. And the artwork, design and layout created by Misanthropic-Art for the visual part of “For Death is Fate” is really excellent.

The trio works into a modern and aggressive model of Black/Death Metal, guarding some resemblances with acts as HATE and BEHEMOTH, but bearing a personal insight. It means that their musical work is aggressive and nasty, but tasteful due the lack of extremely intricate instrumental technique (besides one can check parts where the band presents some contrasts, as heard on “Black Science”). It’s just Black/Death Metal with energy and personality, so what more could a fan of extreme Metal ways could ask for?

“Black Science” is a brutal and oppressive moment, using contrasts between fast and slow tempos, but it’s full of extreme hooks (and an amazing work on the guitars). The next one, “Vanth”, keeps the aggressive and massively intense impact of the trio’s music, with vocals changing from growls to screams easily. The short “Sette Contro Tebe” has a simple appeal, but with a thunderous work on bass guitar and drums and good effects. And “All’Infinito” follows the same tendency, but a bit more climatic due the use of slower rhythms and charming parts with pianos.

“For Death is Fate” is a release that states that the trio is alive after such hard years of the pandemic, and to have a name as VOLTUMNA in activity in extreme Metal is truly great!