The debut full length of the Italians In Grief pleasantly brings us back to the typical death doom sounds of the nineties, the era in which the British triad formed by My Dying Bride, Anathema and Paradise Lost marked the sub-genre with a more romantic and mournful imprint. This impressions does not derive exclusively from listening to An Eternity of Misery, as it is the band itself that communicates its primary influences in an honest and transparent manner. For this reason, too, the work of In Grief is convincing for its appearance that is anything but derivative, as the references to their own tutelary names are clearly perceptible, but are reworked in such a way as to give the feeling of not listening to a faded copy at all. The trio expresses itself with conviction and just as much inspiration along ten tracks, including two short instrumentals, reaching the one-hour mark without showing any particular signs of weakening, with the peak found in two magnificent tracks such as Queen of Babylon and Dig Hopes, the latter embellished by an elegant use of the violin. On the other hand, the musicians involved in the project have been active for a long time in the national extreme scene, and this experience is clearly perceived in the balance with which the matteri is handled, dosing with wisdom the harshness of death and the effective melodic cues; if an already convincing debut as the ep Echoes of Doom of 2020 had perhaps not obtained the feedback it deserved, the landing to a label of international weight as Iron Bonehead should favour the timely disclosure of a work that confirms a newfound ferment in Italy as regards this sector of doom metal.

2022 – Iron Bonehead Productions