Valadier - Stronghold of the Everlasting Pyre Review
Italy | Medieval Melodic Black Metal |
Italy | Medieval Melodic Black Metal |
Valadier - Stronghold of the Everlasting Pyre (2022)
In the Italian countryside, the ruins of an imposing fortress stand before you. Overgrown with weeds, a dark past lies beneath—a history of warring families, corruption, and bloodshed. The Middle Ages battle between the presiding Ottoni household and their rivals Varano had a fiery end.
The stronghold was cast out from memory by the population as it tried to forget its life under the brutal rule of the previous regime. And so the scene is set for a black metal album seven centuries later by Macerata locals, Valadier. Take that, Ottonis! Should've built a better citadel, like us.
At first, I thought, "Hey, a new Obsequiae album!" but I was wrong, my friends. My second thought (and maybe yours) was, "Wow, what a totally rad logo". It turns out only one of those thoughts was true. From the first song, At the Dawn of the Onslaught, your earholes are caressed with a light acoustic and flute, before being hit in the face with a riff brick.
The chugga chuggas add some nice spice to the song, and to be fair, the album itself is quite dynamic, from quiet passages to plenty of mid-paced heft. Riffs weave in and out like a serpent, and there are plenty of them, but only a few are memorable. Unukalhai's Abbathian vocals are the perfect amount of croaky grumpiness, really hitting a sweet spot.
There's not much variation in them, but it's not necessarily needed. The bass work is one of the highlights for me (I don’t say that often about a black metal album), as the production really lets it shine, plus Matteo does some interesting walking bass lines on the second track. I also love the idea of blowing into a wooden tube full of holes, AKA a flute, but the results on this album are hit and miss. As an accompaniment, it sounds fine, but when tasked with carrying a song section, the playing and writing need improvement.
The album's main issues are laid bare in the title track. What is supposed to be the battle's climax is a mish-mash mess. The basic arpeggios and chord sections jump into faster parts, but the transitions are jarring, and the songwriting is not strong enough to sustain it. When the clean vocals come into the forefront, they sounded off and took me out of the mood...Why not keep the clean vocals in Italian (not English) to really transport you back to this bloody battle in the middle ages?
There are good ideas on this album, and I'm on board with most of what is presented here, but it's all disjointed, like a tasty looking menu at Eastern European pizza after the fall of the Soviet Union. They have the ingredients now, and making the pizza is not too hard, but the finished product is relatively bland, and they'll need some time to perfect it.
If you're a fan of the latest from Véhémence or Heltekvad and need more melodic medieval black metal (who doesn't?), this might scratch that itch. There are several spots for improvement, but a promising start from these Italians and I look forward to what they have to offer in a full-length. Not quite a 'molto bene' yet; this lasagna needs a bit more time in the oven.
NOTE: don't make the same mistake as me, and listen to it on YouTube. It sounds genuinely terrible and doesn't do the album justice. Go check it out on their Bandcamp, I bought it from there, but you can set your own price!
Written by: Chernoglav The Hero With The Silver Moustache
Sporting more than just a moustache under his hood, Chernoglav loves underground Metal, but also listens to a dynamic range of other sub-genres like Power. He’s also never had a moustache.
