Permixtio - Il Canto dei Sepolcri (2010)

Labeled as ‘reflective Black Metal’, today we have Permixtio and their debut full-length “Il Canto dei Sepolcri”. Some people might immediately label this as Suicidal/Depressive Black Metal, but according to the press sheet, the lyrical content of this album diverges from these themes. Whatever the actual meaning is, Permixtio shows skills that only more mature bands have, and with “Il Canto dei Sepolcri” we get a monumental emotional Black Metal release that will creep under your skin.

After a very ‘angelic’ choir intro, the band quickly drowns the listener with the mid-tempo distortion galore presented in “Il Canto dei Sepolcri”. In this track the dense mood is set by harshly distorted guitars and a hypnotic tempo that shifts from mid-tempo melancholy to raw Black Metal merciless assaults. While most bands focusing on emotional music almost never change from a ‘drowsy’ kind of pace, Permixtio goes back into the depts. of hell and opens a few windows while crafting their atmosphere during their songs.

Bleak desolate canvases are painted with the third-track “Notturne Rievocazioni”. In this song, we can see how the band creates buildup with repetitive sections and capitalizes on them by increasing the pace at some point. Here we also have the hellish shrieks crawling under your skin, working as the perfect combination for such a raw and crushing atmosphere. The rest of the tracks keep on with their own unique identifiers and with countless tempo changes, making them very dynamic for those listeners that want to hear more than one riff/tempo per song.

While Permixtio might not be highly original, they do a good job in drowning the listener with such a raw sound. However, the band never abuses brutality or simplicity in order to create a certain effect; they construct their music around solid structures and catchy riffing. The last two tracks even feature some acoustic elements that add to the overall magic of this release and change things up a bit.

In general we have to say that Permixtio is a very solid band, and while not super original or technically brilliant, they do know how to create dense atmospheric guitars that drive this album magically. The use of clean choir-like vocals here and there and the crushing shrieks greatly add to the overall bleakness of the music. If you are looking for something ‘kind of depressive’ in musical spirit, then stop looking and get this solid debut full-length release.

Release: April 30th, 2010

Country: Italy