The wait is over, Stortregn is back.
Created in 2005 under the name of Divine’s Smile then Addict Repulsion in Switzerland, the band driven by Romain Negro (guitar until 2016/chant) and Johan Smith (guitar) offers us Impermanence, its fifth album. The line-up is completed by Samuel Jakubec (drums, Hypocras), Duran K. Bathija (bass until 2016 then guitar) and Manuel Barrios (bass, Brokenhead).
The soundstorm comes to life in two steps. The first one is this wonderful artwork from the painter Paolo Girardi (Forgotten Tomb, Armageddon, Firespawn, Inquisition, Hooded Menace…), and the second is the mélancholic introduction of Ghosts of the Past. The storm gets ready in the background, and the instrumental part makes it grow slowly before it suddenly explodes, offering us the vocalist’s howlings in a duo with Alessia Mercado on dark and sharp riffs. The powerful and epic melodies continue on Moon, Sun, Stars, un song with a weighing ambience. This impressive rhythmic lets an important place to leads and vocals, and this obscure alliance easily crushes us. The band is joined by Merlin Bogado (former live guitarist) for Cosmos Eater, a complex and solid song, that offers a gust of leads coupled to an impressive rhythmic, then the short Impermanence calms everything down. Prog sonorities melt to an intense instrumental rage, then some gruntings announce us the arrival of Grand Nexion Abyss. Aside from the composition’s martial aspect, the sound plays on a linkage between spiking epic leads and a massive aggressivity, for a seizing melting. After a mesmerizing avalanche of leads, the final lets place to Multilayered Chaos, a captivating song with dark but enthusiastic and catchy sonorities. The numerous piercing harmonics calm down for a restful clean-sounding break before the final strike. The band immediately begin Timeless Splendor, an energetic song that once again focuses on a lot of lead parts, to which we add this massive basis as well as Prog influences, which dye more and more the band’s music. The album ends on Nénie, a song that keeps the previous songs’ recipe with french terrifying howlings, giving us an apocalyptic atmosphere. The composition plays on the contrast between a rythmic with dark vocals and airy leads, that fly until the last second.
Stortregn already sets the bar high with their previous album, but Impermanence clearly goes beyond my expectations. The band offers seizing melodies, an epic and apocalyptic ambience, dubbed by visceral howlings, and the whole melting gives life to their compositions.
95/100