Probably a good idea on the part of all-caps Italian instrumentalist trio IKITAN not to call their new release ‘2021.’ While enjoyable, I kind of felt like their late-last-year debut extended single, “Twenty-Twenty” (review here), suffered some amount of guilt by association with the miserable year in which it arrived. At very least, in putting it on, I found myself thinking about 2020, and, well, that has yet to prove pleasant on balance, though some good things did happen, IKITAN‘s debut among them.

Darvaza y Brinicle it is for the impending two-songer, the tape also marks the first release for the band through Taxi Driver Records, and its titular tracks serve to highlight their claim toward a post-rock influence, airy guitar taking flight amid a heavier crunch and an overarching progressive feel.

Plus, who doesn’t like a cassingle?

From the PR wire:

IKITAN publish two new singles in a limited-edition cassette by Taxi Driver Records

IKITAN, a heavy post-rock trio, is proud to present “Darvaza y Brinicle”, its first limited-edition cassette, published by Taxi Driver Records.

The cassette will be released on Friday 3rd December 2021 and the two new songs, titled “Darvaza” and “Brinicle”, will be available on Taxi Driver’s Bandcamp page as well as on all the band’s digital stores.

The tape contains the two singles on side A, and “Twenty-Twenty Live at Forte Geremia” on side B, which was released digitally and as a video in June 2021.

Only 30 copies of the cassette will be available, and each one comes with a digital download of the two singles… and a BIC pen.

Listen to “Darvaza” and Pre-order the limited-edition cassette “Darvaza y Brinicle” (limited-edition: 30 copies).

“With a lot of new riffs under the belt since the release of “Twenty-Twenty”, and having had the opportunity to share “Live at Forte Geremia” with the world, it was the right time to publish some new music.
We’ve been rehearsing a lot as a consequence of the prolonged state of emergency in Italy, and “Darvaza” and “Brinicle” are the first products of this increased musical productivity in IKITAN’s headquarters”, says the band.

Unusual natural phenomena and weird facts have always been fascinating for IKITAN; the name of the band itself represents the alleged Aztec god of the sound of the stones, as depicted in the cover of “Twenty-Twenty”.
The Darvaza is in Turkmenistan whilst the Brinicle occurs in the Antarctic Ocean.

“Darvaza (“Door to Hell”, an artificially-created crater that’s been burning since the 70es) and Brinicle (a finger-of-death ice stalactite that kills everything it encounters in the water) represent two different yet complementary sides of our nature, devastating and powerful but ethereal and dream-like at the same time”, says IKITAN.

The idea of releasing the two singles as a cassette comes from Massimo Perasso, owner of Taxi Driver Records, an independent music label based in Genoa and born in 2009.

“We’re very happy to partner with Maso, a true legend in Genoa when it comes to heavy music, stoner and all types of interesting and cool projects, and his label Taxi Driver Records. We’ve always been fans of the label and its releases, and to be among some of Genoa’s (and beyond) best acts makes us very proud”, concludes IKITAN.

IKITAN was formed in Genoa, Italy, in 2019. The band’s self-released debut “Twenty-Twenty” is a one-track instrumental EP lasting 20 minutes and 20 seconds, and it was published on 20th November 2020. The EP was well-received globally by the press and fans alike.

As it was impossible to play live due to the pandemic, IKITAN recorded its first live video, “Twenty-Twenty Live at Forte Geremia”, in March 2021. It was recorded on top of an old military fort (819 m asl) and it captures the band playing “Twenty-Twenty” live for the first time, in a dramatic scenery between sea and mountains, and with no audience. The video of the concert, a tribute to generator parties, is available on YouTube.

The artwork for both “Twenty-Twenty” and “Darvaza y Brinicle” is crafted by Luca Marcenaro.

Save the date! “Darvaza y Brinicle” will be published on 3rd December 2021 in a limited-edition cassette by Taxi Driver Records and it will be available on the label’s Bandcamp.

Listen to “Darvaza” and Pre-order the limited-edition cassette “Darvaza y Brinicle” (limited-edition: 30 copies).

“Twenty-Twenty Live at Forte Geremia” is available on IKITAN’s Bandcamp as a name-your-price digital download as well as a live video on YouTube. IKITAN’s debut EP “Twenty-Twenty” is available as a limited-edition (200 copies) digipack with a free poster and sticker as well as a digital download on Bandcamp.

IKITAN:
Luca “Nash” Nasciuti: guitar
Frik Et: bass
Enrico Meloni: drums and cowbell

https://www.facebook.com/IkitanBand/
https://www.instagram.com/ikitan_official/
https://ikitan.bandcamp.com/
https://ikitanband.com/
https://www.facebook.com/taxidriverrecords/
https://taxidriverstore.bandcamp.com/
http://taxidriverstore.com

IKITAN, Darvaza y Brinicle (2021)

IKITAN, “Twenty-Twenty” Live at Forte Geremia

With 15 years of history and two prior full-lengths under their collective belt, Genoa, Italy’s Temple of Deimos sign to Argonauta Records to release their third album, Heading to Saint Reaper, in 2022. The deal-inking continues a long history for the label of supporting countrymen Italian acts, and Temple of Deimos already had their desert rock style well in-check on 2014’s Work to Be Done, so one should expect no less of the next outing.

Last I checked, one usually heard more about the capital-‘r’ Reaper as an angel than a saint, but hey, if Death got a promotion, certainly it’s well earned. Been working overtime for the better part of the last two years, and so on. And somehow, since Catholicism is a death cult anyway, sainthood feels at very least more honest. Saint Reaper it is.

No word on an exact release date, but “early 2022,” so figure maybe March/April depending on what else is up for Argonauta‘s always-busy release schedule.

The PR wire brought the signing announcement:

Desert Rockers TEMPLE OF DEIMOS Sign With Argonauta Records

New Album ”Heading To Saint Reaper” coming in early 2022!

Following their latest, 2014- album, Work To Be Done, which was lauded by both fans and critics alike, Genoa- based desert rockers TEMPLE OF DEIMOS have announced their return with the release of a brand new album! Heading To Saint Reaper, the band’s third full-length, is slated for a release in early 2022 through underground powerhouse Argonauta Records.

“We are extremely stoked to announce our collaboration with Argonauta Records and All Noir for the release of our third album“, says the band. “And we can’t wait to unveil more details about the new record, make sure to follow us on our Facebook and Instagram for updates! We are back. Stay tuned.”

The Italian stoner rock trio was formed in 2006, channeling the flavor of groups such as QOTSA and heavily inspired by the Palm Desert and 90’s grunge scene. TEMPLE OF DEIMOS have toured with acts such as Nick Oliveri or Dandy Brown of Hermano to date.
Creating their fuzzy, heavy yet psychedelic desert rock sound in a distinctive shape, the band’s upcoming album will even see them to get out of their comfort zone, ultimately cementing their own and unique character.

TEMPLE OF DEIMOS is:
Fabio Speranza – Vocals & Guitar
Francesco Leo – Drums
Stefano Parodi – Bass

www.facebook.com/Temple.Of.Deimos
www.instagram.com/templeofdeimos
www.templeofdeimos.bandcamp.com
www.argonautarecords.com

Temple of Deimos, Work to Be Done (2014)

A thing or two to notice in the info below for Varego‘s upcoming self-titled fourth album, in addition to the standard stuff like preorders and a streaming single and the release date. The essentials. While you’re taking those in and further considering the takeover of digital distribution that DistroKid has quietly pulled off in the last couple years — at least that part of it not solely devoted to Bandcamp — note too that Varego are now a three-piece after apparently parting ways with guitarist Gero Lucisano since 2019’s I, Prophetic (review here).

The exclusion (however it came about) of Lucisano would seem to have coincided as well with a separation from Argonauta Records — which the now-former guitarist heads — and finds the band releasing their record on their own. They herald a new sonic direction as well, and at the very least a shift from two guitars to one would affect their dynamic, so yeah, I’m sure there are some stylistic shifts present. You can get a taste for what that means in the visualizer they’re presenting for “Limbo” below. And no, they’re not talking about the lean-way-back kind of limbo.

From the PR wire:

VAREGO Release new single and video for ‘Limbo’

“Varego” out on June 11th

Italian post prog trio VAREGO recently announced their return to the scene and today they are proud to unveil the details of their new self-titled album, ‘Varego’, out on June 11th, 2021.

To celebrate and to give a first taste of their new sound, the band presents the first single and visualizer for ‘Limbo’.
Listen/download the new single ‘Limbo’ here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/varego/limbo

“Limbo was the first track on the new album that we created. The powerful bass intertwines with heavy rock guitar riffs, while the drums bring us back to a connatural rhythm.

The lyrics talk about all those stalemates in our lives, where we think we are conditioned by events but in reality it is us and our fears that cause this state of life: by destroying them we can become the food for our dreams”, says the band.

Pre-orders of “Varego” are now available here:
CD Digipack and digital: https://varego.bandcamp.com/album/varego-2

The band’s fourth studio album, “Varego”, was recorded in a few days almost entirely in real time at Greenfog Studio in Genoa, with producer Mattia Cominotto (Meganoidi, Tre Allegri ragazzi Morti) who also did the mixing and mastering.

The album preserves the strength of the wildness and the organicity of the songwriting, leading to a new maturity. VAREGO’s sound found a new fresh energy and it is significantly more powerful, an exanthema with grunge echoes, stoner rock riffs, post metal and prog rock nuances, that pushes the evolution of the group one step further. It’s the manifest result of a creative peak and, in the meantime, a point of arrival and a new start.

“The special feature of this new album is its instinctiveness. The composition of the songs was written on the spur of the moment, in fact in the studio we wanted to give this feeling by recording all the rhythmic parts, including the guitar, in real time. The lyrics are about war, drugs, madness, death and everything that poisons the lives of human beings, trying to ‘exorcise’ and transform all this poison into medicine. Also on a musical level, the intention is to make people feel that darkness and light are complementary, the two sides of the coin called life”, states the band.

Like the coal reveals the diamond over time, in this new record VAREGO know how to refine their visceral instinct, transforming it into a definite and incisive force. Their poisonous properties have become the exacerbated healing balm to the discomfort of today’s world.

“Varego” tracklist:
1.Tunnel
2. Limbo
3. Death
4. Needles
5. One
6. Wave
7. Raptus (Un passo e muori)

VAREGO are:
Davide Marcenaro – vocals, bass
Alberto Pozzo – guitars
Simon Lepore – drums

www.varego.it
www.facebook.com/varego
www.instagram.com/varego_band

Varego, “Limbo” visualizer

[Click play above to stream the title-track of Demetra Sine Die’s Post Glacial Rebound. Album is out this month on Third I Rex.]

Their sound varies more or less on a per-song basis, if not a within-song basis, so if you’re looking for an easy-genre-tag-and-move-on kind of listen, look elsewhere. Demetra Sine Die‘s third offering, Post Glacial Rebound (on Third-I-Rex), requires cerebral engagement at almost all times. It’s like a movie with crucial plotpoints happening every minute, and that’s not a comparison I make lightly. The music itself throughout the seven tracks/46 minutes of the release is richly cinematic, and with vocals swapping between speaking, singing and screaming parts, one might listen to a song like the nine-minute black metal/noise-until-it-decides-not-to-be centerpiece “Gravity” and the later brooding swirl of the melodic “Liars” and wonder if it’s the same band.

Seems to be, yeah. Black metal is part of their approach, but by no means the totality. The Genoa, Italy, three-piece of Adriano Magliocco and founders Marco Paddeu and Marcello Fattore blend elements from noise rock, doom, post-metal and prog together to create a sound that reminds almost of Norwegian avant pioneers Virus in its encompassing style, but Demetra Sine Die‘s divisions are stark, and the tension they hold in “Lament” or the later moments of the closing title-track — a flurry of drums backing spacious clean vocals there — has a presence of its own.

The album is a multi-tiered challenge, then, since not only does it make such a requirement of attention, but it pays off that effort at its own will, without compromise, when and where it wants. That title-track, by the way? Yeah, it just ends. Cold. As if to reinforce the purview the listener is under and the idea of just who it is Demetra Sine Die are making this music for.

Themselves, if it’s not obvious. This kind of progressive, constantly shifting, varied sound of course isn’t without its tinge of self-indulgence. That’s practically a requirement. Still, with the breadth that Paddeu, Fattore and Magliocco cast from the opening bassline of the deceptively grunge and patiently executed leadoff “Stanislaw Lem” onward into the headfirst collision between melody and dissonance in the subsequent “Birds are Falling” and down through the rest of Post Glacial Rebound that follows, the sense is not that they’re trying to manifest chaos, but that their manner of expression simply refuses convention.

For example, “Birds of Calling” starts with shouts over distorted low end and an oft-heard torrent of drums, straightens out into a long forward, dual-vocal melodic verse, then turns back quickly to the shouts before renewing its push. It passes the halfway mark in this manner, then at 3:21, the progression shifts into a noisy lead that itself gives way to an effects-laden shove of a riff that closes out. Where did that riff come from? I have no idea. It just kind of showed up, but if you’re willing to go with it, Demetra Sine Die make it worth your while, in that track and the drama of “Lament” immediately following, which undergoes its own transformation from a poetry reading over drone to a drum-led build of vague spoken words swallowed by driving post-metallic riffs and, a bit later, screams and growls as it moves toward its apex.

So, shit is weird? Yeah. Definitely. But it’s worth underscoring that Post Glacial Rebound isn’t just weird for its own sake, and it isn’t simply a work of self-indulgence. That ending of “Lament,” which delves into more extreme sounds seemingly out of nowhere, leads to and ultimately smooths the transition into “Gravity,” which marks the darkest and harshest moment on the record. I don’t know that the one song was written to complement the other, but it certainly feels like it was at least positioned that way when the album was actually put together after being recorded.

Likewise, “Gravity,” with its airy guitar and half-gurgled howls early, its middle-third onslaught and its ending melodic moans, in turn serves as an entry point into the even stranger second half of the outing, as “Eternal Transmigration” takes hold — the shortest inclusion at 4:08 — with laughter backing the spoken line “Free your spirit” as if to undercut the very notion. Echoing declarations are subsumed by noise and drums, and that itself bleeds into the more-straightforward-if-you’d-dare-to-call-it-that “Liars,” which rides loud/quiet tradeoffs and an easy melody that, in context, retains some of the threat of its surroundings without actually needs to make an assault of its own. Once again, effects fill out the arrangement, and Demetra Sine Die hold together the proceedings atop a consistent movement of drums.

With a last-minute devolution into ambience, “Liars” gives ground to the closing title-track, which opens much the same way. It would be hard to imagine Demetra Sine Die summarizing the entire record in one track, and even as “Post Glacial Rebound” approaches the nine-minute mark and moves from lumbering low end and roomy guitar over top to a reignited tension in the drums and moaning clean vocals to its almost Tool-esque prog metal finish of percussion and melody, the impetus seems less to reinforce how far the three-piece have journeyed than how far they might still go.

And fair enough. As the follow-up to 2012’s A Quiet Land of Fear and 2008’s debut, Council from Kaos, Post Glacial Rebound leaves some questions unanswered as to just where Demetra Sine Die are headed musically, but is nothing if not purposeful in that. Nonetheless mature, the band in no way sound like they’ve finished growing, nor like they will anytime soon. That might be the most progressive aspect of these tracks. Not only are they thoughtfully composed and executed, but they can’t help but lead the mind of the listener to imagine what Demetra Sine Die might do next.

Demetra Sine Die on Thee Facebooks

Demetra Sine Die website

Third-I-Rex on Thee Facebooks

Third-I-Rex on Bandcamp

Headphone-worthy textures and a churning post-metal heft come together in Genoa, Italy-based four-piece Naat. The band will release their self-titled debut this fall on Argonauta Records, as the PR wire confirms below, and as they become labelmates of the vaunted likes of Suma, they seem well in place, chugging basslines and tapped-out guitar runs adding depth of approach to the overarching rhythmic thrust the band elicits in the lead single “Baltoro” from the album. There’s a cinematic drama to the proceedings, but not at the expense of tonal impact, which is only further brought to bear as they make their way toward a more frenetic apex.

If you’re going to check it out — and please, by all means, do — volume helps:

ARGONAUTA RECORDS – New Signing: NAAT

We’re proud to announce a new band in the ARGONAUTA Records family: NAAT.

NAAT is a huge blend of instrumental post metal, doom and sludge coming from Genoa, Italy, born in 2014 by founder members of Antea, Lilium and Stone Smokers, three bands that attended Rock, Metal and Stoner scene for years in Northern Italy.

The intention is to revise the personal musical ideas of each member and produce a preconceptions-free sound experience.

“Power” and “Atmosphere” are blend, accompanying the listener between peaks and sudden vertical drops where the dynamics develop and crumble into an instrumental kind of “stream of consciousness”.

The band says: “We are very happy to inked a deal with Argonauta Records, a label fitting so well in a music scene we know and where we want to carve out our own space. We are convinced that our approach to “metal and similar” is something to involve a good deal of fans. We look forward to the efforts of the past year are finally released; we are ready to bring our music live on stage! We would like particularly to thank Mattia Cominotto and Greenfog Studio of Genoa for helping us so much in the recording process, with dedication and advice; we are very pleased with our record and it is mostly his merit!”

“Self-titled” album due Fall 2016.

www.argonautarecords.com
www.facebook.com/naatband

Naat, “Baltoro”

The forthcoming “Phantasma” single from Italian post-sludgers Varego will not be their first collaboration with Billy Anderson. Rather, Anderson — whose production CV is second to none in heavy — has mixed and mastered everything the Genoa outfit have done to date, from their 2012 debut, Tumultum to the next year’s follow-up EP, Blindness of the Sun. Varego have been largely out of commission since that shorter offering, but the five-piece make a return with the new single, the B-side for which will be a remix of “Secrets Untold” from the last EP by Argonauta Records labelmates Shabda.

No audio yet, but the release is due at the end of the month, so it can’t be far now. Info follows as sent along the PR wire:

VAREGO: new single and collaboration with SHABDA

Italian Post Prog Metallers VAREGO are back after two years of silence ‘till their latest “Blindness of the Sun” opus. The band is actually working to the final touches to their new 2-songs single “PHANTASMA” tentatively scheduled by the end of November. Available on bandcamp via free download, “Phantasma” will feature a very new song of the band, mixed and mastered by legendary producer BILLY ANDERSON (Sleep, Weedeater, among many others), and the remix of the old song “Secrets Untold” cared by Drone Doom outfit SHABDA, transforming Varego heavy sound into an antithetic texture of reiterations and droning surround.

VAREGO say: “Yes, we’ve been probably too much under the radar recently, but this will be a significant come back for us in two years, that we want to celebrate with a new song that more than ever features all our influences (think of Melvins, Neurosis, Voivod and King Crimson, all together, yes!). Or, if it looks too much pretentious, just call it WEIRD METAL!”.

“PHANTASMA” free download single will be available tentatively by the end of November via ARGONAUTA Records bandcamp page: https://argonautarecords.bandcamp.com/

More info to follow soon.

www.argonautarecords.com
www.facebook.com/varego
https://varego.bandcamp.com/
https://argonautarecords.bandcamp.com/

Varego, Blindness of the Sun (2013)

It’s a proposition that has beguiled scientists for decades now, but Italian stoner metallers Isaak have finally aligned the proportion data and determined that The Longer the Beard the Harder the Sound. So proud was the Genoa foursome of this discovery that they took their central theorem as the title of their 2012 record. The band, who went by the name Gandhi’s Gunn at the time, released their debut full-length, Thirtyyeahs (semi-review here), in 2010.

Needless to say, the reverberations through the scientific community since Isaak‘s discovery have been rippling outward ever since. Word reached the ears of Small Stone Records, who added the band — vocalist Giacomo H Boeddu, guitarist Francesco Raimondi, bassist Massimo Perasso and drummer Andrea Tabbì De Bernardi — to its ever-increasing roster of European heavy rockers, so that their riffy, burly jams might enlighten others to the complex mathematics within the driving grooves of “Breaking Balance,” the moody ’90s stomp of “Flood,” or the final resonant psychedelic proof of the 10-minute closer “Hypothesis,” on which Isaak add further distinction via balancing sitar lines and massive, modern riffery.

This new version of The Longer the Beard the Harder the Sound is set for a June release and includes four bonus tracks: The Pink Floyd cover “Fearless,” the Iron Maiden cover “Wrathchild,” and two more originals, “The Right Time” and “Isolation 2.0.” You’ll find those as well as the rest of the original album ready for consumption on the player following. Please enjoy.

Full stream ahead:

Isaak, The Longer the Beard the Harder the Sound

[mp3player width=480 height=400 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=isaak-the-longer.xml]

Small Stone will release Isaak‘s The Longer the Beard the Harder the Sound this summer. More info at the links below.

Isaak on Thee Facebooks

Small Stone Records

Sometimes you want a bit of unabashed weirdness, and fortunately that’s what Italian post-metallers Varego have on offer with their new video for the track “Soul to Devour” from their self-released debut LP, Tvmvltvm. And I don’t just mean weird, I mean like claymation weird, which is a whole other continent on the weirdness map. In “Soul to Devour” we see a sort of robed-mystic/Jesus guy contend with bugs, doll parts and life on what appears to be the red planet. Apparently it’s the first in a series. I can dig it. Album info follows the clip below.

Have fun:

The Post Metal/Sludge band VAREGO releases their first official videoclip. The song “Soul to Devour” is taken from the full-length TVMVLTVM, out during 2012 by Argonauta Records. The album, which has been highly acclaimed by many relevant channels, is a mystical/esoteric concept that will have its continuity in the next works of the band. The videoclip “Soul to Devour”, released by www.sfiammaproduction.com, features some of the main events and characters of a long odyssey through Earth and Cosmos.

Varego is the name of an entity formed by five musicians, veterans of the underground music circuit. Born in 2009 with a sound briefly compared to various Post Metal genres, the band worked with the producer Billy Anderson (Neurosis, Melvins, EyeHateGod, among many others) for the debut album made of ten songs. The work is a strong mix of “Sludge” sonorities, for a final result featuring epic and progressive elements. “TVMVLTVM” (this is the title of the album) is a first part of a concept with mystical/esoteric themes and it’s released by the label managed by band members and named Argonauta Records.