Vowels - Hooves, Leaves & the Death/As December Nightingales (2012)

Dark, cavernous and emotionally intense are the first few words that come to mind when describing the first full-length release of Italy’s Vowels titled “Hooves, Leaves & the Death/As December Nightingales”. In this six track release the band expand on their Avant-Garde Black Metal sound with some experimentation with Post-Black Metal and Ambient elements and in turn deliver one of the darkest and most depressing releases we have heard in quite a while.

Opening with “Wolves Eating the Sun”, the band combines the uniqueness of Arcturus with the crushing Doom elements of bands like Ufomammut. After the Post-Rock-ish opening, the wall of distorted guitars makes it was and combines harsh screams with some well-placed clean vocals. The riffing is your traditional BM style, but with a muffled distortion that makes it more crushing. This is truly the first time we hear all of these elements nicely combined into one devastating track.

With “Not unlike a Falling Leaf” and “Vespri” the band sounds a bit like Tenhi and their lush string instruments but with a higher focus on the ambient side of things and with a very minimalist approach to music. These songs are very dramatic and lush in their own way, creating a shroud of darkness around the atmosphere of this release. On “At Night” there is some craziness near the end, but this track is still another very calm and minimalistic one.

The best track of this release comes with the name of “Wake”, a song where things get pushed a bit further and Jazz influences make the appearance. In a very similar fashion to Lantlos “Agape”, Vowels delivers a very engaging piece that near its completion features some nice Jazz influences and great female vocals. The only bad thing about it is that the band gives us a little sample of it, but ends the release right there. If this is the indicator of how their sound will be in the next release, we are instantly signed up to pre-order that.

With countless of bands playing Post-Black Metal and Avant-Garde Black Metal, it is nice to hear that Vowels is pushing things a bit further and enriching their sound with extra elements. If you like Lantlos and similar bands give this release a try and be ready to be surprised by the quality of this release.

Release: April 9th, 2012

Country: Italy