notturno-obsessions

Review from Truemetal.it

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 18:43:30 +0100

From: Truemetal.it

Published: June 20, 2022

Quanto sono difficili da recensire dischi come “Obsessions“! Ogni volta che mi capita per le mani un album così divento matto nel cercar di sconnettere la parte emotiva da quella oggettiva per l’intento che devo avere nel narrarvi e delineare i tratti artistici, compositivi e lirici dei brani.

“Obsessions” è l’esordio discografico degli ‘atmospheric/depressive black/pagan/ambient’ italiani Notturno, band capitanata dalla mente geniale di Vittorio Sabelli, polistrumentista (qui in azione su chitarra, basso e tastiere) già al lavoro sulla mastodontica creatura ‘safinim pagan/black’, i Dawn of a Dark Age.

“Obsessions” è poesia pura, oscura, nostalgica; è disperazione. È pure un viaggio attraverso anfratti oscuri di boschi o antiche strutture, luoghi abbandonati, dove riecheggiano ancora i sussurri struggenti delle streghe relegate al loro destino dannato. Una vera e propria ossessione emotiva.

Il disco, brano dopo brano, dipinge attorno all’ascoltatore ambientazioni bue, grigie e uggiose. La musica, a tratti onirica, distorge pian piano la realtà. Basta chiudere gli occhi per venir catapultati in un’altra dimensione, dove non esiste più alcun orientamento e dove si può solo lasciarsi trasportare dai turbinii agghiaccianti architettati dal duo molisano. E qui, in questo contesto compositivo così elegante e smarrente, e nel contempo sferzante e ferale, si plasma la mastodontica interpretazione dai connotati teatrali dell’espressiva cantante Kjiel Eyeleissight (Eyelessight, Sacrimoon, Angor Animi), artista in grado di sussurrare anatemi, gridare con taglio lacerante la sofferenza, ammaliare senza pietà la speranza condannata. Perfetta anche la prova alle pelli per mano di Sven (Himinbjorg, Paydretz, Tan Kozh), musicista autore di una prestazione calibrata e mai eccessiva, vero cuore pulsante che scandisce l’incedere inarrestabile del flusso emotivo di questi tre poemi oscuri.

La cornice musicale orchestrata dai Notturno racchiude passaggi che vanno dall’atmospheric black metal, al pagan, all’ambient. Atmosfere distese si insinuano nei meandri della mente di chi ascolta e cementificano le emozioni partorite a sangue dall’ossessione ricorrente che tesse le composizioni.

Musicalmente parlando, per dare una coordinata stilistica, possiamo dirvi che vaghi echi di October Falls, Shining e Vinterriket saranno percepibili dagli ascoltatori più ferrati in materia sebbene, questo suggerimento, vuole solo essere una considerazione generica e non certamente esaustiva di quelli che sono i profondi contenuti del disco in questione. Un full-length con una continuità d’ascolto imponente, risultato di abilità tecnica con un chiaro intento: scrivere brani in grado di esaltare, ancor prima della forma canzone, una ‘esperienza’ di ascolto in grado di generare emozioni. Un disco in grado di lasciare esterefatti per la bellezza che nasconde negli angoli bui d’ogni singolo brano.

“Obsessions” cresce ad ogni ascolto; è davvero un gioiello di rara unicità in un panorama musicale parecchio inflazionato da band che puntano molto alla pancia senza però, molto spesso, riuscir a suscitare alcuna suggestione.

“Obsessions” è decisamente un capolavoro del genere. Al solo pensare che possa essere il primo capitolo di una lunga serie di album mi vien la pelle d’oca… o forse, in cuor mio, vorrei che restasse così com’è: un unicum sul mercato o, se preferite, una memoria caduta in disperazione e perduta nello spazio buio del tempo.

“Obsessions“: irripetibile turbamento fatto musica.

Rating: 92/100

Reviewed by: Nicola Furlan

Review from Metal Temple

Fri, 17 Jun 2022 20:22:21 +0100

From: Metal Temple

Published: June 16, 2022

Original Link

NOTTURNO is an Italian black metal band who formed this year; "Obsessions," is their debut release. Black metal has grown into a diverse and expansive genre so labeling this album such doesn't really give the full idea as to what these three tracks encompass. The album, which speaks of compulsions that take shape within our lives, depressive, bleak and dark as hell. Giving the subject matter that is no real surprise. They tread these waters well, using the theme to their advantage to push their sound forward. Along with the darkness, the album brings in melancholic tones and a thick atmospheric pressure that blankets the three tracks.

As such, there is a doom metal aspect to the song writing, particularly with the sometimes slow speed and structure of the songs. All three songs are long with opening intros that buildup up over time. There is care and devotion to their craft, evident in the fact of the build up all leads to big pay offs. Musically it is as dynamic as is expected. There are plenty of destructive moments but they are intertwined among a lot of clean notes and quiet whispers.

The first track, "Fear," opens with these cleaner, more subdued moments. The drums provide a simple but solid foundation, which bolster up the song to prepare it for the next transformation. As the music begins to build itself up, vocalist Kjiel's voice begins at a raspy whisper as if she is haunting the songs. Around the five minute mark, double bass and distortion pierce the quiet atmosphere. The vocals switch to blackened shrieks, matched in intensity by Vittorio Sabelli's deadly tone. The song changes to an atmospheric passage where the bass pushes the way through for the song to smoothly transitions to more clean moments. Very well done but with Sven Vinatieri’s ability to back up the rhythm in any style, it isn't a surprise. The last few minutes sees the band playing vicious black metal—the mood of the song culminating into this brutal passage.

“Darkness," is the shortest of the three songs but no less effective. Its impact is more immediate, eschewing a long build up for a more direct approach. It is dark and heavy more psychologically somber than the heavier parts we've heard so far. The band even throws in melody during the faster pieces and it works so well, creating a truly lost feeling of despair. Beautiful keys mix with the clean instrumentation for the mid part of the song—it might be dark but it is gorgeous in its own way. The final moments end on a dirge of riffs and despondent melodies, not unlike some of the darker types of post-metal.

"Falling" has a more structured clean opening than the first track, taking a more intricate musical route this time rather than teetering on the edge of vagueness. The acoustic guitars is very slick and fits into the song with ease. Soon though, blackened fury takes over for one of the best parts of the album. The terrifically pain and frustration filled vocals bring out the best of the music. This is a song where the band compliments each other, feeding off the very ebb and flow of their creations. The melodic guitar holds it all together yet pushes it to the cavernous ambient section which in turn sets the music up for a return to blackened skies.

NOTTURNO's "Obsessions" may be a somewhat short album but it is still absolutely monumental and deep. Fans of extreme metal who are looking for an album that effectively mixes several styles together into one cohesive force, need to get on this.

Rating: 9/10

Reviewed by: Justin "Witty City" Wittenmeier

Review from Mournful Sounds

Wed, 11 May 2022 20:23:15 +0100

From: Mournful Sounds

Published: May 10, 2022

Original Link

When it is proposed with mastery and with the right sense of measure, depressive black metal turns into one of the most poignant and, at the same time, satisfying musical forms that you can listen to. In Italy, in particular, we can count several prominent realities among which I would dutifully mention Eyelessight, and this is not done casually because, in this debut album of Notturno, a band born from the inspiration of Molisan musician Vittorio Sabelli, the vocal interpretation is entrusted precisely to Kjiel, the one with whom it is natural to identify that project. One of the two female voices (the other one is Tenebra from Dreariness), that better know how to evoke and return in its entirety the pain of living and the torment of a psyche in decay, is at the service of the compositional sensitivity of Sabelli, able to weave a little less than forty minutes of music with an enormous emotional impact; the three long tracks that make up Obsessions are revealed as equally strokes of authorship in which you go with surprising fluidity from twilight atmospheres to heartbreaking tears of dsbm matrix, while maintaining a firm melodic imprint that is not even scratched in the moments when the interventions of Kjiel go to express a suffering almost paroxysmal. Fear, Darkness and Falling make up a triptych of lacerating beauty, enhanced by sounds tendentially cleaner than the average of the subgenre and a flawless executive work, with all instruments played by Sabelli except the drums entrusted to the French Sven Vinat; Obsessions wounds and leaves scars destined to reopen just when you believe that the pain has been partially soothed: a must for those who prefer listening to dark music, poignant and tormented.

Review from Black Metal Cult

Wed, 04 May 2022 20:48:45 +0100

From: Black Metal Cult

Published: May 1, 2022

Original Link

Here comes another absorbing project by multi-instrumentalist Vittorio Sabelli (Dawn of a Dark Age), NOTTURNO. Last April 29th, the band released the first full-length, Obsessions, which featured the excellent female singer Kjiel (Eyelessight) and French drummer Sven.

Before giving my opinion about this recent endeavour, it is worth commenting on the beautiful cover art of the album. The artwork and the layout were conceived by Nino R. Mejia, the photographer in charge, Riccardo Ziosi, who immortalized the model Michela Suffritti in this masterpiece.

Vittorio Sabelli is known for his unusual and original endeavours in his Dawn of a Dark Age project. His black metal is full of incursions that provide a myriad of sonic nuances with his clarinet and well-structured folk symphonies. Now with NOTTURNO, Vittorio, through Obsessions, presents another work of peculiar refinement.

The album is a pure lyrical and instrumental enchantment, a happy fusion of atmospheric, depressing black metal, doom metal and chamber music. The full-length delivers 37-minute epic-length pieces of music. Starting with the theme of the lyrics, that talk about our psychological torments, which lead us to obsessive compulsions and lunacy. Often living under our social masks, they are still there, hidden in obscure corners of our minds.

All the songs here are immersive with depressive landscapes, but the frenzy swing of old black metal is present and in a perfect dose. I don’t see any other approach that could clearly describe this dark and despairing mood we often experience.

I confess that I’m not a big fan of female vocals. But this time, I admit that for the first time, I fell in love. Kjiel won me over with his tortured, anguished vocals, her well-timed whispers, her old-school high-pitched screams. A first-class interpretation, really demonstrating the lyrics through her vocals in an absolute fashion.

Sven provides us with slow organic beats that accompany all the somberness required in these interpretations. Vittorio and his ravenous bass and the melancholic guitar draw sighs of emotion and leverage the songs to a peculiar level of refinement.

Everything in Obsessions is in perfect sync. Absolutely nothing is out of place or stands out loudly and disconnected. Riffs, beats and vocals built this voracious atmosphere and insightful suffering.

The trio of skilled musicians in Obsession develops the songs in a crescendo and introduces you to the shadowed world of the human psyche in Fear. Pours anguished in Darkness (my favourite track), with dystopically sweet beauty and magical melody permeated with cruel harshness and despair.

We end this journey with Falling. This, in turn, reaches the apex of Kjiel’s anguish, flooding us with an atmospheric black metal worthy of the master Vittorio and Sven. Feel the subtle undertones of progressive metal as you continue your journey through doom without letting you stray from the essence of this jewel. Highly recommended.

Rating: 9/10

Review from Metal.it

Wed, 04 May 2022 20:41:44 +0100

From: Metal.it

Published: May 1, 2022

Original Link

Tre lunghi brani colmi di magia.

Un viaggio, disperato e triste, all'interno delle ossessioni e della follia che flagellano la nostra psiche.

"Obsessions", opera di esordio del duo italiano sotto i vessilli della impeccabile Hypnotic Dirge Records, indaga in profondità dentro la parte più oscura di noi, ci svela quello di cui abbiamo paura, mette a nudo le nostre debolezze e, in modo doloroso, emoziona.

Le stupefacenti melodie, frutto di una miscellanea di atmospheric / depressive black metal, doom ed accenni alla musica da camera, accarezzano le nostre anime, lacerano la pelle con le improvvise esplosioni delle sei corde, dipingono paesaggi nebbiosi di fronte ai nostri occhi e trovano la propria sublimazione nelle vocals disperate, e micidiali nella loro folle espressività, della bravissima Kjiel (Eyelessight) che rende palpabile la malinconia dalla quale tutto l'album risulta avvolto e plasmato.

Ancora una volta, il songwriting di Vittorio Sabelli (Dawn of a Dark Age) si dimostra di qualità superiore e riesce ad emozionare con la "semplicità" del purissimo talento: "Obsessions" è, infatti, un album distante dalla mediocrità fin troppo imperante ai nostri giorni, è musica che nasce dal cuore e che sa ferirlo con le sue asprezze, è un concentrato di traiettorie disarmanti nel loro pathos, è il costante fluire del vento che, ora calmo, ora selvaggio, ci sbatte in faccia e ci tormenta per i nostri errori ma che, al contempo, sa accarezzarci quando è la quiete, sognante ed eterea, ad entrare in scena facendoci perdere contatto con il mondo circostante.

Le tre profonde ferite che i Notturno ci infliggono, ci fanno sanguinare e ci accompagnano per mano nella mestizia delle nostre vite alla ricerca del senso, qualora esistesse, delle nostre esistenze su un pianeta che, in fondo, non ci vuole e del quale non siamo degni.

Questa, signori miei, è la musica della fine di tutto e dei rimpianti, ma è, sopra ogni cosa, lo ripento ancora, purissima emozione.

Album spettrale e disarmante.

Rating: 8.5/10

Review from Musipedia of Metal

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 20:11:59 +0100

From: Musipedia of Metal

Published: April 29, 2022

Original Link

Notturno is a new project from Multi Instrumentalist Vittorio Sabelli, from Dawn Of A Dark Age and Suici.De.Pression. Vittorio is joined in this project by Vocalist Kjiel, who usually provides the vocal chords for Eyeless Sight, and guest drummer Sven. Obsessions is Notturno’s first release. Notturno’s style is broadly black metal, and specifically a mix of atmospheric and depressive black metal, that is melodic, tuneful and tends to stay on the softer side of black metal, only occasionally pushing the extremity button.

The album is split into 3 long songs, named Fear, Darkness and Falling. Fear opens with clean guitar and keyboards, the feel is sad and melancholy, and it is soft and minimal in style. Whispered vocals are added, making this feel delicate and fragile. The track then takes a turn for the heavy and harsh, with mid-paced depressive black metal and anguished, harsh vocals. The song then goes back to the soft and melancholy style that the track opened with for a couple of minutes before the heavy and harsh returns, and this time the extreme section keeps on getting more aggressive, with a blast beat, and a very hostile snare battering the audience. The track drops back into the clean and soft section, which takes the song to its conclusion.

Darkness is the shortest of the 3 tracks. The song opens with very slow and heavy depressive black metal in a similar vein to None, a lush keyboard line is added building the melancholy. The arrangement builds and very aggressive vocals are added, the song then drops into a Blast Beat and a tremolo picked melody lead is added and just fills the song with melody and grief. There is a short, soft and clean guitar part, before the depressive black metal builds back up for a deeply unhappy ending. Final track Falling again opens with soft, clean guitar and whispered vocals, there is a classical guitar solo that is just lovely before a very slow and heavy section with fervent vocals, that builds to melancholy depressive black metal section that is a little reminiscent of Nordicwinter, that has a huge tremolo picked melody over it.

A blast beat is added, but that tremolo picked melody is still there. The track then has a break, and everything drops to soft keyboard swells and clean guitar, which then slowly adds more extremity as it builds back up to be driving and dramatic rhythmically. This fairly staccato part then morphs into some very pleasing atmospheric black metal that flows brilliantly. The track then stays mainly on the atmospheric/depressive black metal style with some very good melody leads and vocals that are deeply anguished and full of emotion. The song and the album comes to an end with soft, clean guitars and keyboards. Obsessions is a great first album.

It’s quite simple when compared to a lot of black metal, but in many ways that is a strength of this album, it’s straightforward and direct, it’s trying to put across a feeling of sadness and melancholy, and does so in a very effective way. It has a sense of being a first statement of intent, this is what Notturno is, it seems to say. On subsequent releases I’ll expect more complexity, but for a first album this works very well. The album is very effective in presenting a very particular form of sadness and anguish and it does it so well; the combination of riffs and achingly melancholic and sorrowful vocals have a very powerful effect on the listener. A great first album, I’m already excited for the follow up. Highly recommended.

Rating: 8/10

Reviewed by: Paul Scoble

Review from Games, Brrraaains, and a Headbanging Life

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 18:23:27 +0100

From: Games, Brrraaains, and a Headbanging Life

Published: April 25, 2022

Original Link

Three behemoth offerings of dark, chilling and harsh atmospheric black metal. Notturno take the listener on a journey into dark and very deep depths. Where light struggles to reach and the silence is ominous and intimidating.

It’s this sense of foreboding that makes Fear so very palatable as the slow melody and whispered, throaty vocals swirl around the mind. Leading to a sharper and more intense explosion of black metal. Around the mid-point, it drops away again into near silence but slowly and surely builds back up to a latter half that just burns with metal intensity.

Impact made, Darkness is then spread far and wide as Notturno take their sweet time here. Delivering a mind-numbing attack on the senses with both melodic beauty and harsh horror. The latter mainly coming from the vocals.

Finally, it’s Falling. Where Notturno deliver nearly 15-minutes of enlightening melodies and deep atmosphere. Switching between thought-provoking and epic sounding dreaminess, frantic black metal, dark tones and so much more. It is, as are the other two, an absolute giant of atmospheric black metal.

An album that you don’t so much as listen too, rather you experience it.

Rating: 9/10

Reviewed by: Carl Fisher

Review from The Headbanging Moose

Sat, 23 Apr 2022 19:35:15 +0100

From: The Headbanging Moose

Published: April 22, 2022

Original Link

A melancholic trip into the obsessive compulsions that take shape within our lives in the form of first-class Atmospheric and Depressive Black Metal made in Italy.

Developing its atmosphere through lengthy songs with strong dynamics and pacing, keeping the listener lost in a reverie and crafting an immersive experience at once melancholic and infectious, the newborn Italian Atmospheric/Depressive Black Metal project Notturno will take you on a melancholic trip into the obsessive compulsions that take shape within our lives, the psychological torment, and the scourge of madness that takes hold inside the ancient walls of the human psyche with their debut full-length opus entitled Obsessions, peering around the dark corners within all of us. The brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Vittorio Sabelli (Dawn of a Dark Age, Suici.De.Pression), Notturno floats between Atmospheric and Depressive Black Metal, Doom Metal and chamber music, sounding intimate and possessing a strong character highlighted by the unique and singular expressiveness of female vocalist Kjiel (Eyelessight) and organically driven drum work of Sven. Mixed and mastered by Stefan Traunmuller, and displaying a stylish artwork by Dario Ursino (featuring model Michela Suffritti), Obsessions offer the listener 36 minutes of an absolutely stunning Black Metal sound, pointing to a bright future ahead of such promising project.

The sluggish, somber beats by Sven kick off the first of the three tracks of the album, simply titled Fear, being gradually accompanied by the melancholic guitars and low-tuned bass by Vittorio while building a depressive and obscure atmosphere that will darken your heart and soul, all of course embraced by Kjiel’s smooth but anguished vocals. Furthermore, the guitar work by Vittorio is a thing of beauty, elevating the song’s intensity to a whole new level. Then more of the band’s Depressive Black Metal will invade our senses in Darkness, with Vittorio and Sven being in absolute sync with their respective riffage and slow and steady beats while Kjiel sounds even more perturbed and evil on vocals, adding an extra touch of malignancy to the overall result. And the last song of their triumvirate of darkness and depression, entitled Falling, brings forward Kjiel’s most anguished vocalizations accompanied by the minimalist and reverberating guitars by Vittorio in a lesson in Atmospheric Black Metal, with their despair, hatred and obscurity rising as the music progresses while also presenting elements from Progressive, Experimental and Doom Metal before ending in a beyond Stygian way.

If you want to know more about Vittorio Sabelli and his Notturno, you can find the project on Facebook for news and other details, and of course if you’re a true admirer of Atmospheric and Depressive Black Metal with a beyond sinister aura you can purchase your copy of Obsessions as a very special bundle containing a digipack CD, a shirt printed on Gildan softstyle, a logo patch, a signed postcard, a magnet and a logo sticker, as well as a CD or in digital format. Italy has always been an amazing source of first-class Atmospheric Black Metal thanks to bands like Notturno, and may that darkness go on forevermore to the sound of classy and multi-layered albums like Obsessions. In other words, if this is just the first step in the career of Notturno, I can’t imagine what’s next for this newborn entity brought into being by the multi-talented Vittorio Sabelli.

Reviewed by: Gustavo Scuderi

Rating: 3/5/5

Review from Wonderbox Metal

Fri, 15 Apr 2022 21:54:55 +0100

From: Wonderbox Metal

Published: April 15, 2022

Original Link

This is the debut album from Notturno, an Italian black metal band.

Featuring the vocalist of Eyelessight, Notturno play a mix of depressive and atmospheric black metal that also contains elements of doom. There are three epic-length songs on Obsessions, delivering 37 minutes of material in total.

The music is despondent and forlorn. It effortlessly conjures melancholic soundscapes across the span of the songs. A well-rounded dark atmosphere is created from the start, and is easily maintained and spread throughout the music. With the skilled application of mood-based songwriting by people who know their style well, the songs strike the right balance between the emotive excesses of the depressive style and the immersive slow-build approach of the atmospheric one.

The high-pitched screams are of the depressive school of black metal, full of pain and anguished venom. The singer’s voice drips with tortured passion, and her performance is first rate.

Obsessions is a satisfying and rewarding work. The band craft their art with intimate pain and despairing gloom, and provide the listener with a spread of lost hope and existential darkness to feast upon. If you favour music that’s dark and unforgiving in its tormented, misery-drenched nature, then make sure you experience what Notturno have created.

A recommended listen.

Review from Black Metal Spirit

Fri, 15 Apr 2022 19:45:27 +0100

From: Black Metal Spirit

Published: April 9, 2022

Original Link

Tres temas conforman el primer álbum de este nuevo proyecto italiano que nos ofrece un sonido black que se nutre de influencias que van desde el doom, al depresivo pasando también por le atmosférico. Los temas son extensos permitiendo unos largos y elaborados desarrollos en donde el oyente se ve sumergido en una suerte de paisaje de ensoñación denso y repleto de melancolía en donde confluyen sonidos limpios con teclados, bajo y guitarra construyendo unas texturas frágiles que muchas veces son llevadas a terrenos del doom cuando las guitarras cobran mayor protagonismo. El ambiente se ve destrozado cunado entran en acción las voces de Kjiel, que no tiene una presencia predominante ya que la música fluye limpia la mayoría del tiempo, pero cuando hacen acto de presencia el paisaje más intimista que logra dibujar el plano meramente musical se torna en un estado de enfermedad, desolación y sobre todo mucha desesperación, con connotaciones depresivas sumergiendo al oyente en las profundidades de la locura. El patrón se va cumpliendo en los tres temas, hora con mayor protagonismo para las teclados, hora con mayor peso de los desarrollos instrumentales o con mayor peso de las voces, sin embargo todo esta construido con la mayor de la profesionalidad, logrando ser una experiencia inmersiva con un contraste muy fuerte entre las partes más lentas y las que se nutren de las voces, capaz al mismo tiempo de sorprender al oyente con la variedad de matices que encierra este "Obsessions".

Rating: 8.4/10