New goal for Invernoir.
With Aimin’ for Oblivion, Valerio Lippera (bass, Ghost On Mars), Alessandro Sforza (guitar/vocals, Lykaion), Lorenzo Carlini (guitar/vocals, Black Therapy) and Flavio Castagnoli (drums, Rome in Monochrome) begin a new chapter in the life of the band, in partnership with Code666 Records and Aural Music.
The album begins with the haunting sweetness of Shadow Slave, which invites us to move with it into the darkness, guided by melodious guitar and majestic keyboards to join the vocal parts. These are predominantly aggressive and saturated, but the choruses take on a dualistic quality with soothing clean vocals, while the final takes on a different intensity, followed by Doomed, which immediately engulfs us with its dark strength. On the whole, the track remains more soaring than its predecessor, with more regular pauses leading up to the chilling, disquieting Desperate Days, where the contrast between screams and reassuring lyrics develops very markedly. Although rather short, the composition is very effective, but it gives way to Forgotten in Time, which adopts an intriguing Old School dissonance while letting the majority clean vocals weave a haunting veil over the melancholy rhythm, but the saturated vocals take over on the break. The last wave takes us to Broken and its tortured sounds, which take advantage of the contrasting duet, but also of a few words in Italian to bring down the pressure and announce the solo, but the track is also rather brief, and leaves its place to Few Minutes, which fully anchors itself in duality after a rather calm start. While some passages are quite jerky, others are very heavy and almost oppressive, but the band always manages to place a reassuring touch like the final moments bringing us closer to Unworthy and its minimalist tones. Softness hypnotizes us, but lets itself be crushed before placing different vocal parts in its volatile mist with intoxicating harmonics, then it’s Useless‘ turn to captivate us before placing calm words and cavernous growl in its slow, icy rhythm, but always imbued with that infinite sadness.
This is only their second album, but Invernoir is already playing in the big league. It’s easy for fans of Melodic Doom/Death to spot its influences, but Aimin’ for Oblivion is an excellent candidate for the title of this year’s master of melancholy.
90/100