I was waiting with a certain curiosity for the second step on long distance of the Sardinian band Apneica, a band that three years ago had impressed me with the ep Pulsazioni … Conversione, a work in which death doom and post metal converged in a natural way. Since the first listening it appears quite evident the decided shift towards the second of the two components, unfortunately leaving a sense of incompleteness to those who, like me, prefer instead harsh and dramatic sounds rather than the liquid and languid flow for which the however Alessandro Seghene has opted. Yes, because, in spite of everything, the talent of the musician from Sorso continues to be always well tangible even if flattened today on solutions that, on a duration close to the hour, in the long run reveal themselves if not really tedious surely interlocutory, in the often vain wait that the pathos conferred by the death doom takes sooner or later the upper hand. A clean voice, which can not be as sharp as the growl, declaims texts always original and interesting, with their constant reference to water as a fundamental element for human life but also as a metaphor for existence: that’s how Vulnerabile Risalita lives of ups and downs, with flashes of excellent music alternating with dips in tension that correspond, for the most part, the most rarefied passages. But it’s not only my predilection for one style of music over the other that leaves me perplexed: in fact, even songs with a much more robust structure, such as the final In Risalita, struggle to take share and take a well-defined melodic physiognomy, and the feeling is that the amount of brilliant ideas exhibited in the ep has remained more or less the same, losing effectiveness in its being diluted over the long distance. It’s a pity, also because the final part of the opener Sul Fondo and the following Acqua Su Acqua and Inserimento Dati Vitali seem to start on the right tracks a work that, instead, winds up to its conclusion without any deplorable episode but not even provoking particular jolts, except with a more incisive and psychedelic Sognando Nuove Colonie. A step back that should not be equivalent to a rejection for Apneica, who can start from here choosing in a more decisive way on which of the two shores to land, because, as already said, here there is plenty of talent to spend and it’s just a matter of optimizing it at best.

2017 – Mizar Elektrik Waves