Compact Disc (CD), T-Shirt/Apparel, Vinyl LP, Cassette
Ten years ago, Storm{O}, a hardcore punk band from the small Italian Alpine town of Feltre, were four angry teenagers mixing the sound and the attitude of old-school Italian hardcore (Negazione, Nerorgasmo) with the frantic contemporary violence of Converge and Dillinger Escape Plan. Now, after a decade of DIY touring and records, they’ve become one of the most loved and respected heavy acts in their country, especially thanks to their 2014 release Sospesi Nel Vuoto Bruceremo In Un Attimo e Il Cerchio Sarà Chiuso, which attracted hardcore, post-hardcore, screamo, and even metal listeners thanks to its seamless style-melding.
On their new album Ere, Storm{O} are faithful to that same winning formula. Yet, the mathy, metallic brutality that was Sospesi’s core has a fragile and emotional quality here. The result is a powerful, claustrophobic album with exceptional songwriting, starting from the opening track “Taxidermia,” so carefully built on a series of asphyxiating crescendos abruptly interrupted by tense guitar riffs. “Meteorite” evokes the feeling of being powerlessly sucked into a vortex of raving chord progressions and wild accelerations, while tracks like “Porta dell’Attimo” or “Cenere” are excellent examples of fierce, straightforward hardcore.
On the rest of the record, the four-piece rarely allow the listener a moment of pause. Singer Luca Rocco sounds like he’s desperately climbing over slippery walls, trying to escape from a nightmare filled with memories and obsessions. His vocals fluently stumble and slide over cutting guitars that continuously swirl and crumple up, crushed by the ever-changing, thumping drums. Storm{O}’s invitation into their world comes without the warning that it will all fall down eventually—but that fate feels, ultimately, cathartic.
