CARNENERA

Carnenera is a new band from Italy and this is their first album. They are a trio but some on PA may know guitarist Lorenzo Sempio from the RIO/Avant group NicheloDeon. While that group is inspired by avant-garde, classical and opera, Carnenera is more inspired by alternative rock, metal and post-punk (but in a experimental, "progressive" way). The sound of the music here is fairly diverse yet due to the guitar/bass/drums lineup it stays in a certain musical universe. Lorenzo also makes effective use of synth guitar here and some of the music sounds like something coming from a keyboard. There is one song with a female vocalist but apart from one other track with some wordless male vocals, this is instrumental.

"Tilikum" has a cinematic and atmospheric opening to the album. Goes into more of a post - punk meets post metal vibe. "William Blake"(which you can listen to on PA) is one of the most overtly 'post-rock' songs on the album. Fairly easy-going with all sorts of strange effects happening in the background. Features an interesting solo on guitar synth. "La marchia dei triceratopi" features the vocals of Dalila Kayròs. After a more subdued beginning, this is more of a straight-forward doom metal song than the rest of the album. Her vocals are generally 'growled' but not in a way that you couldn't understand her words.

"Duello" is more uptempo than the rest of the album. Kind of like Sonic Youth meets math rock. One of the highlights for sure. Almost country style guitar soloing here. Even the bass gets a chance to solo as well. "Nine And Then Some" revolves around a catchy jazzy bassline. Great guitar soloing at the end. "Self-Harm" is one of the highlights. Reminds me of early Tortoise being both highly melodic and rhythmic at the same time. Stylistically, you could say this album falls somewhere between post-rock, metal and avant-rock. I would recommend this to fans of the more harder-edged post-rock bands or the more varied and experimental post metal bands. I will give this 4 stars.