Pulvis Et Umbra: "Reaching The End"

Lying To Yourself
Wrath And Sorrow
Kosmonaut
Portrait Of Myself
The Price Of Trust
Reaching The End
Hope In A Better Afterlife
Architects Of War

   lyrics: http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/pulvisetumbra/reachingtheend.html

      www.facebook.com/PulvisEtUmbraofficial 

   http://www.reverbnation.com/pulvisetumbra

LISTENING

http://www.reverbnation.com/pulvisetumbra

LABEL / DISTRO /Management: Abwesend Records

Underground spirit.

Before Pulvis Et Umbra releases the new album (the recording sessions of bass and lead guitars are finished while vocals will be scheduled soon) let's analyze the previous debut "Reaching The End". Pulvis Et Umbra play Thrash and Death metal , merged with other style elements. Anyway it is a fierce soundwall based on death-metal schemes that characterizes this band the most . Melodic passages are included and refine the aggression and brutality.  This album must be listened with much attention, paying this attention to the core and forgetting that the sound "could have been better". The first impact can be problematic but very soon you discover a world. This is a very interesting band which plays a raw and implacable music, whose vocals can growl and scream, whose drumming kicks ass (notice the very violent and dry snare beats), whose guitars are scorching. Pulvis Et Umbra is not innovative, but very angry (and hungry) so that the music sounds rearranged and transformed and, above all, the extreme styles are merged and embellished with some unexpected elements (like Metalcore ). Wrath and Sorrow (track number 2 of the album) is the best and most inviting example. The opener Lying To Yourself is a trashy song and is quite particular because the band is focalized on vocals and battery while strings are sonically placed behind. Lying to Yourself opens the album in a straight- to- the- point and speedy way, it is not the classic opener, it is more a fist into your face, yet it is fascinating and after a couple of listening's you will replay this song again and again. It is a strange and courageous opener because it is pure genuine underground spirit!
After the dark and mighty Kosmonaut, comes an experimentation: Portrait Of Myself: an incisive growling and punishing track, whose refrain is based on a really nice melody, unfortunately sung in duet with a quite unexpressive chorus, for the rest it is a great track.
You may think that this band comes from France, Norway, Sweden or USA (actually the music is inspired by Lamb Of God, Dark Tranquillity,  In Flames or Pestilence)...No, not at all. The great surprise is that this band is
Italian (from Lombardy) and fortunately it doesn`t seem. I say "fortunately" because there are a lot of Italian metal bands that play in a superb way, but then...the vocalists open their mouth and ...sing... Only few Italian bands sing top notch as the international level wants. Yes, Pulvis et Umbra can compete on an international level and can attract many metalheads, even Metalcore fans. Rhythmed, at times catchy, and always dirty, Pulvis et Umbra can really be the Discover for many.
The album is closed by "Architects of War", a song full of ideas and great hooks,  played in a "broken" and fragmented way, but if you can break the veil of this crude mood, you remain astonished by realizing that the composition is
great, the structure is strong. If this song would have been recorded by the mightiest Thrash/Death metal bands of today, it would have been a hammer...
This doesn`t mean that the band doesn`t play well. On the contrary. This means that Pulvis et Umbra only needs a top producer.

Pulvis et Umbra (the name comes from Latin, precisely "Pulvis et Umbra sumus" a line from Horace) must also improve cohesion of the instruments and power of the sound, and they can do it easily. On the other way i am quite satisfied of this album:  let's appreciate again the rawness of the  underground.

7/10

by dalia di giacomo  18.02.2014