Marea – The Silence of Rust
Release Date: 17th May 2024
Label: Masked Dead Records / Sulphur Music
Bandcamp
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal, Post-Black Metal, Doom Metal.
FFO: Woods of Desolation, Novembre, An Autumn for Crippled Children, Drudkh.
Review By: Rick Farley
One man project Marea is an atmospheric, post black/doom metal band from Italy. Their debut album The Silence of Rust releasing on Masked Dead Records is an emotive trip to the deepest darkest realities. Full of dread, radiant hope, and stygian complexity. Using brutal, yet beautiful soundscapes, ensure an intense journey through your psyche.
“Marea is about dreams, dreary landscapes, deepest fears, and harsh sounds. Both the sea and cosmos share an element, although reversed: the abyss.”
The Silence of Rust is equally dynamic as it is static moving. Fiery black metal mixed with entrancing post doom creates a seductive atmosphere that one minute shrieks with raw, high-pitched vocals and the next sombre, clear tones just under the airy mix, which are deeply tranquillizing. The amalgamation of tremolo induced guitar wretchedness and fixated dreariness can take a little getting used to if you are not well versed in this style. That has always been a downside to bands like this is, the experience can be relatively jarring at first. It can also be mesmerizing and beautiful, even with all its black metal ugliness. That’s where I sit, the transfer of extreme emotion to subdued droning is something that I appreciate. Marea is quite skilled at this, conjuring up staggering moments of intensity as well as blissful melody.
Opening track Riptide Tune eases in with sounds of frozen winds and swelling notes right at the forefront. It rushes into a grungy chord progression with tremolo picked guitars using the signal note melodies that started the track. The drums are basic and hold a steady beat while hellacious blackened growls and high-pitched shrieks sound tortured. Quite a dissimilarity in soundscape between the vocals and music that somehow just works. About midway through, melodies and atmosphere which remind me of Deftones when they are at their most moody, shine through. Again, it works incredibly well, almost sounding completely different from the previous section, but still cohesively intertwined. This swaying gaze drifts out to the end, providing fragile hope to the listener.
Leading from that into Sidereal, an ominous doom filled track that is menacing, as well as a jarring juxtaposition just feels downright wicked. Horrifying tortured screams, walls of doomy guitars, blast beats and searing blackened death metal influence wraps up all seven and a half minutes of this heinous song.
I do have to explain the score I gave this though, the complaint that I have is not with the quality of the music or the production, but rather the length of instrumental passages, or lack of vocals on The Silence of Rust. Granted it’s doomy post black, but there is a considerable chunk of the record with no vocals, possibly more than half. While that works for some, it does damper the overall enjoyment for me personally. The doom is grim, the post is alluring and bleak, the black metal is raw and sinister, but this needs additional vocal emotion to augment the impact of everything else.
If post black/doom metal is your thing, I highly doubt you will be disappointed in The Silence of Rust, while it is not pushing the genre in any way forward it is incredibly effective at what it does do. Marea is a band to keep an eye on.
(3.5 / 5)
