ALBUM REVIEW: Trivial Visions – La Morte Viene Dallo Spazio
Taking a sci-fi cult-classic for their namesake, LA MORTE VIENE DALLO SPAZIO are confirmed cinephiles. Based in Milan, the band started life as a loose collective: creating cosmic soundscapes through improvisation; a technique pioneered by soundtrack composers in the very same city some sixty years earlier. Their debut album, Sky Over Giza, documents those early days of free experimentation. With an array of instrumentation at their disposal, LA MORTE VIENE DALLO SPAZIO reimagined the sounds and textures of classic sci-fi with an admiring and deep affection. From this carousel ensemble emerged a quintet, and the project’s amorphous compositions began to take more definite forms. Prepare to open your third eye, and witness Trivial Visions.
LA MORTE VIENE DALLO SPAZIO begin proceedings with the familiarity of drones and shimmering electronics, but Lost Horizon soon departs these familiar grounds. Trivial Visions is not an extreme metal album – at least, it would offend the purists among us – but the band flirt with its speed and intensity. Guitarist Stefano Basurto is clearly well-versed in all things shredding; the title track is resplendent in thrash metal refrains, while Ashes concludes in a dive-bomb solo straight from the SLAYER textbook. Melissa Crema’s Moog and Angelo Avogadri’s flute sit strangely alongside the buzzsaw guitar, but are brought together within the familiarity of Kraut rock rhythms, which are delivered by Federico Rivoli on drums and Camilla Chessa on bass. It’s not something which works on paper, and there are certainly moments which work better than others, but LA MORTE VIENE DALLO SPAZIO have been tenacious in pursuing this fusion style and the result is singular.
This is not your average retro-rock. LA MORTE VIENE DALLO SPAZIO clearly draw from a bewildering number of influences, but manage to sound like none of them. This isn’t thrash metal HAWKWIND, nor is it TANGERINE DREAM with blastbeats; NOCTURNUS A.D. accompanied by OZRIC TENTACLES gets close, but hardly does them justice. There are vocal components, but most of the melody here has been realised through the spontaneous interplay of flute and synthesiser. It’s reassuring that they have not completely forsaken the free-form improvisations they started with; these now buffer the heavier, riff-driven tracks and create some much needed room to breathe. Trivial Visions is not a concept album with a continuous drama that unfolds as a whole, but it is nonetheless cinematic. Its events are contiguous with each other, and tracks have been carefully arranged into an episodic structure. This consideration for the listener makes the album very listenable, in spite of its strangeness.
Trivial Visions marks a decisive break from LA MORTE VIENE DALLO SPAZIO’s debut, Sky Over Giza. They may have moved on from creating hypnotic and psychedelic soundscapes, but this album is no less exploratory than its predecessor. By introducing organic and synthetic sci-fi sounds into heavy metal structures they have created something which is at once familiar and strange; retrofuturism reimagined in musical form. Trivial Visions is a wilfully bizarre and entrancing heavy psych experience.
Rating: 8/10
Trivial Visions is set for release March 26th via Svart Records.
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