Listen to the poetry of Kintsukuroi.
After ten years of existence under the name Solitude Project, the Italian band (whose name corresponds to a Japanese art of repairing pottery with gold or silver) created by R.F. Sinister (vocals/bass) and B.G. (guitar/keyboards) have chosen the year 2023 to announce the release of their debut album, About Emotions, via Pest Productions.
Drums were recorded by Cezary Borawski (Shah), and there are also guitar parts by Stefano Condotta and Federico Furlan, and leads by Mike Lamb (Sojourner, Remina, Lord of Shadows), Matteo Libralesso and Paolo Bruno (Thy Light).
From the very first track, Ghosting, melancholy is omnipresent. The gentle melody immediately comes to life, leading us to a soaring rhythm punctuated by tortured vocal parts, saturated or otherwise, and carries us away in its natural flow of heady riffs that never hesitate to flare up or slow down to become more airy, as on About Emotions, whose leads approach Post-Black Metal. The rhythm remains much more lively, letting the blast carry the most aggressive parts under the raucous screams that stop during the break, allowing us to breathe before drowning again in saturation. Calling of Razors plunges us back into darkness, where the duet with Francesca Dorio‘s clean voice sounds like a light in all this omnipresent darkness, taking us to Eutanasia, where clear guitars greet us with sampled vocals before introducing us to a throbbing saturation. The band abandons softness for the rousing Achuk and its jerky Old School rhythm, which nonetheless allows a few piercing leads to penetrate our minds, before Forever Sweet Dreams wraps us in its veil of mysterious sounds, before letting vocals, including some from Erlad (Gates of Prophecy), to accompany our progress through this dark tunnel of sometimes surprising tones. The guest vocalist remains for The Final Crossroads, whose bleak tones are occasionally brightened up before becoming more solid, also housing a few howled choruses in the background, then the album fades out with the soaring Oh Sea, which mixes airy elements with a more impressive basis, letting B.G. exercise his clean voice while gradually moving away from the more disquieting sounds.
For me, About Emotions takes the form of a journey. Kintsukuroi starts out in the gripping darkness of screaming DSBM/Post-Black Metal, but eventually makes its way to the edge of appeasement, borrowing from soaring Post-Metal. An interesting evolution.
80/100