Visthia - In Aeternum Deleti (2011)

Mixing things up when combining traditional Black Metal with some industrial/drone elements, today we have Italy’s Visthia and their latest release “In Aeternum Deleti”. As one of the most complicated albums we have received in quite a while, this release posed a great challenge to sit through and finally make up our minds about a review of it. The band combines some elements of experimental bands like DHG, Aborym and others that are pushing the edges of Black Metal, but still fails to achieve anything more than shock value with their very disturbing and dissonant sound. Calling their new ‘style’ Black Powernoise, we can’t stop feeling that they might be a bit ahead of their time.

Switching back and forth between spoken Latin sections, some beats and drone elements and a mid-tempo Black Metal, Visthia does achieve a very cavernous and disturbing atmosphere, but nothing more. The vocals are excellent and very creepy indeed, but the slow tempo of things and the samples kind of kill the mood of the BM guitars.

The first two songs present a very ‘slow’ introduction and things escalate suddenly with “In Aeternum Deleti”. In this track, the tempo is upped a bit and we get some monstrous vocals paired with effective riffing in a very Black/Doom kind of way, very nice we might add. The shit hits the fan in some sections of the highly disturbing “Iugum Mei Sceleris”, this is in terms of the band’s drummer going all out for some sections of this song.

Our favorite track of this release has to be the more ‘normal’ “Ut Sibilus Flagelli”. This track has a very natural transition and never feels convoluted. The melodic sections are effective and the fast-paced parts are excellently incorporated. There is no arguing that the vocals are just superb, but the music feels a few BPM’s behind them at point. The ritualistic nature of the clean vocals in this track when accompanied by the guitar riffing is downright excellent and if the whole album was like this we would never stop listening to it.

Is Visthia one of the few visionary bands that is trying to push a tired genre into new dimensions? Yes, they most certainly are. However, we feel that many people might still not be ready for this types of aural assaults, or that the band needs to put their ideas together in a more concise manner and deliver songs that are a bit more accessible for people. We have no doubts that “In Aeternum Deleti” is an album that will strongly appeal to people that are looking for something dissonant and different, but it will surely alienate the average listener in more than one way. Buy at your own risk.

Release: November, 2011

Country: Italy