Varaha‘s long-distance debut shows the more melodic and intimate face of post metal, one that indulges in the emotional side of atmospheric doom rather than the brutality of sludge. Finding out that the singer, guitarist and leader of the band from Chicago is the Italian Fabio Brienza, some veil is torn on the nature of the sound contained in A Passage For Lost Years; in fact, in the second half of the nineties he had been part of Another Day, prog death band author of an ep and two demos but that above all counted among its ranks also the Soellner brothers, who will carve out important spaces in the new millennium with the tenuous and poetic brushstrokes of Klimt 1918. In the light of these roots finds explanation the boundless evocative potential that Brienza puts on the plate with Varaha, authors of one of the best albums of the year thanks to the amazing amalgam between death doom, progressive and darkvave that exudes from this abundant hour of music from the superior class, offered with such continuity to make it impossible to mention a guide track. That’s why, after listening to the wonderful Severance, it seems impossible that the magic can repeat itself without hiccups or failures until the last note of Irreparable, the final act of an album close to achieving the status of a masterpiece.

2019 – Prosthetic Records