Day: May 28, 2012

The last months are giving us several truly magnificent releases coming from the darker side of metal; a pleasure that increases exponentially and makes us (finally) proud since some of them are by Italian bands. In fact, after the not-to-be-missed works of Mancan’s Ecnephias (who in the past collaborated precisely with Valkiria) and The Foreshadowing, it is now the turn of Valkus’ creature to release an authentic gem that brings back to life gothic death doom in its purest essence, when albums such as The Silent Enigma, Dance Of December Souls and Turn Loose The Swans dictated the stylistic canons of a genre capable of giving emotions like few others. Here The Day Comes is a concept, which, as can be deduced from the title of the songs, is centered on the narrative of the different moments of the day, seen as a metaphor for the whole of existence; the album, which features the valuable collaboration of Giuseppe Orlando on drums, reveals itself from the opening Dawn to be a moving compendium of gloomy and melancholic art; Sunrise (the splendid video must be seen) and Morning transport the listener through their dark and decadent atmospheres while, from Sunset onward, the mood becomes even more gloomy and oppressive in deference to the waning of darkness. This is the typical work that requires unabridged listening to promote better assimilation, and the not excessive length helps a great deal in this regard; for their part, Valkiria escape the risk of coming across as a faded copy of past champions thanks to their compositional sensibility and the imposing emotional impact infused into Here The Day Comes in its entirety. It is difficult to find anything that does not work in Valkus and Mike’s proposal: wanting to look for the classic nitpick, perhaps the use of growl would have been preferable in place of the scream, which, personally, I consider more suited to black metal, but even so the sense of fatal resignation that hovers in the album in the presence of the ineluctable passing of time is never diminished. A pleasant discovery for those who did not know Valkiria and a confirmation of the state of health of a scene such as ours that, despite all kinds of adversity, appears capable of churning out with good continuity works of absolute level such as Here The Day Comes.

2012 – Bakerteam Records