La Morte Viene Dallo Spazio – Trivial Visions
Release Date: 26th March 2021
Label: Svart Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Prog, Psychedelic.
FFO: Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, The Sword.
Review By: Lucas Di Mascio
It’s hard to figure out exactly what La Morte Viene Dallo Spazio (try saying that name five times fast!) could be considered as. It’s definitely in the vein of psychedelic, but some songs are a bit more progressive than others where others are more in the stoner rock vein. At times they have a Ministry-ish industrial feel with the way the textured layers of synth and other instruments interact with the heavy guitar and driving drum compositions. I was taken aback a bit by how instrumental focused this release is, only three songs of the eight had a main vocal component in them and it seemed like the vocal performances were reluctantly added.
The album, to put it bluntly, is a bit of a mess. The recordings sound uneven, some songs (Oracolo Della Morte, Ashes) have the bass cranked really loud in comparison to the other elements and it kind of drowns out the drums, whereas others (Cursed Invader, Altered States) have a really in your face guitar tone or a meatier and an overall better mix in the low-end. At times, some of the more “industrial” elements seem to just come in way too harshly. In the title track there is a clap/snare/woodblock sound that reminds me of some of the samples Ministry uses- but it’s so painfully edited and abrasive that it just pops out over top the rest of the music like a blaring alarm instead of acting as a percussive element that adds depth and intensity to the composition. The mix is uneven across the album, but so is the production and songwriting- at times it feels like elements just pop in because they couldn’t find any other spot to put an idea they had and some creative decisions they’ve made are just plain odd and don’t do the songs any favours. The title track awkwardly fades in, the song “Ashes” has a really loud guitar panned to one side in the song that makes the rest of the track sound strangely hollow because of the uneven stereo spectrum, most of the vocals are mixed more to be behind the music, and most of these instrumentals are really long without doing anything interesting- I didn’t hear a single memorable guitar riff, a guitar solo, or background element that enriched my listening experience.
The worst offender is Melissa Crema’s vocals- it’s no wonder they’ve mixed her vocals behind most of the music because when you tune out the instruments and really hone in and listen to her performance she sings with the conviction of someone being forced to do it for the sake of getting it done. Look, I get that not everyone can sing as properly as others and that there are variances in vocal styles that lend to things being more raw and gritty, but this isn’t that- this is just plain poor performance. The entire album just sounds like these are the band’s demos with a bunch of experimental noise going on- funny enough my favourite songs are the ones where the band are flexing their experimental side the most (Absolute Abyss, Spectrometer). The mix was a bit more even in those, or at least had more of a direction, and the songwriting, while still not particularly interesting, had more of a concise vision for what the tracks should be- spacey interludes drenched with character and atmosphere. Everything in Trivial Visions has a very “cheap” feel to it- even the band’s music videos for this release look very amateur and in an age where Hollywood films are being shot and edited on iPhones, that’s really disappointing.
I’m not sure who would be interested in La Morte Viene Dallo Spazio as it demands a lot of patience and perhaps more of an open mind (or a drug induced one) to appreciate, but the demo quality production and weak vocal performances kill any charm the bizarre compositions and sound design brings to the music. I really think that the band should pinpoint exactly what they want to do with this sound and hire a better engineer or producer to work on their music to help rein them in a bit more to a concise vision. It’s a shame when bands have to cheap out on their art, but some extra creativity and inventiveness on their part could go a long way without breaking the bank.
(1.5 / 5)
