Bianca awakens to the world.
Created by ES (guitar, Hideous Divinity, Patriastic, ex-Hour of Penance) and Beta (vocals), the duo recruited Sathrath (drums, Patriastic, live for Nocturnal Depression, Ars Veneficium…) and N (bass, Nautha) to sign with Avantgarde Music and release their first album, Bianca.
The first track is The Dawn, a sort of very long introduction in which we discover female choirs and a very gentle atmosphere, but a scream tears us away and directs us towards Abysmal, which also starts very calmly, but in a much heavier way. The darkness gradually sets in and literally explodes in our faces as the vocalist also lets herself be corrupted and ends up screaming like a banshee, creating an incredible contrast with the clear vocals and their sometimes Doom-infused influences, while the most virulent moments tear our souls apart from within. The rhythm guides us between these different eruptions, but the song eventually gives way to the disturbing Somniloquies, where the bass/drum duo offers a catchy, groovy moment that allows the vocalist to temporarily revive the sweetness before reigniting and offering us these moments of striking intensity that seem almost inhuman. The machine restarts in the same way on Nachthexe, which in turn overwhelms us, mixing roars and choirs before holding our minds captive in its dark but more haunting veil, only to launch the assault again before lulling us into After Dark, a sort of anguished interlude where ambient keyboards and vocals blend together to let us catch our breath. The break is short-lived, as Todestrieb appears like a mirage and exposes us to its first imposing riffs while the clear vocals wander, finally transforming with the explosion of the rhythm section, as we might expect, but which still surprises us with its viscerality. The track ends and leaves Resonance to open a new window onto darkness and its unpredictability, which drives the drums to race ahead on their own, calling on the other instruments to join them in an ocean of fury that becomes majestic before finally fading away. To the Twilight allows us a moment of calm before descending upon us in turn, first hammering us with heavy riffs and then finally with a mixture of the occult and the aggressive, allowing itself a few breaks before evaporating into its own mist for a final lament.
Bianca comes out of nowhere, combining pure darkness and embodied gentleness. While the name of the project may seem a little simple and not threatening enough, make no mistake! In Bianca, you will find things that few are capable of conjuring up…
90/100