R E V I E W
Lucania
Year: 2021
Genre: Black Metal
Label: Hidden Marly Production
Genre: Black Metal
Label: Hidden Marly Production
Country: Italy
Line Up:
Line Up:
Uruk-Hai - all instruments
Cover artwork by Uruk-Hai / Antonio Mormando
The active Hidden Marly Records (Japan) recruits in the South of Italy, Omnia Malis Est, (Basilicata region) of which it produces the debut album "Viteliù" and in 2021 "Lucania".
The title of the album portends a work deeply inspired by the homeland of Uruk-Hai, the only mind behind the project, which cleverly combines themes linked to Lucanian folklore with Black Metal Northern European sounds.
In fifty minutes of music you can casually sweep between compositions of songs that touch shades of Black'n'Roll and Heavy Metal: the songwriting of undoubted quality, heterogeneous, convincing, the whole album flows smoothly and pleasantly.
A balanced and rich production contributes to the performance of the whole, full and sharp guitars accompanied by deep and filling bass with a varied drum programming and natural sounds; although the choice of using a drum machine is, unfortunately, customary by now, in this case, it must be emphasized that the use is considered and measured.
The enrichments of acoustic guitars are suggestive, the singing, with a fairly serious scream, in Italian is also interesting and successful.
Uruk-Hai proposes texts with intriguing and mysterious topics, dramatizing them with the crying of a woman, as in "La Messa dei Morti", or harrowing laments, all of which combine to create distressing atmospheres that lead to travel with the mind.
The concept is divided into three episodes: the sound of the chasing thoughts of the first part "Sacra Povertà", takes the listener into a setting typical of Southern Italy, thus introducing the first two pressing songs; we then cross the second dark and mystical part "Lamentazione Funebre", and then reach the last, "Terra di Luce", in which the dark atmospheres leave room for more epic or melancholy excerpts.
A welcome confirmation for this one-man band that, with seriousness and professionalism, offers a full-length in line with the genre, but with some interesting features that make it refined and original, a small masterpiece
Andrea B.
