
Black metal Bolognese
-- Innero --
04/07/2019
Stijn Daneels

Album genres:
■ | Melodic black metal |
Album artists:
■ | Alces | Vocals |
■ | Arctos | Guitar |
■ | Fuscus | Bass |
■ | Crassodon | Drums |
Review written by Glenn “Terra Shredder” Van Bockstaele.
Innero is a melodic black metal band from Bologna, Italy formed in 2016
and recently they’ve brought out their debut album “ChaosWolf.” The album is released
and sent to us by British record label Third-I-Rex.
The album begins with “Among The Wolves,” a song with a typically black
metal atmosphere. It has the mandatory black metal traits like blast beats,
shrieking vocals and heavily distorted riffs but there are also sections of
clean operatic vocals and touches of melody. Next up is “The Shaman,” a track
that starts with plenty of vicious blast beats before the guitars kick in for a grim song with vocals full of rage and despair. The sense of melody is
retained in the song’s middle section and it all ends with a fast,
skin-shredding finale!
“Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” begins with epic orchestral tunes before the
Innero demons take over again for a pur sang black metal track! In addition to
the usual blast beats and distorted guitars this song also features a crisp
bass only section and has an overall nice cinematic feel! Track 4 is “Durum In
Armis Genu,” and is a much slower and intimate tune. It only has clean, howling
vocals, soothing bass lines and gently pounding drums but there still are a few
heavy outbursts spread throughout.
Next up is “Alone,” another melodic black metal song with a hard
pounding ending. Then there’s “Open Your Eyes,” the longest track on the album and
while it features the typical Innero stuff, it feels too dragged out in my
opinion. The song has no unique twists or surprises to justify its 9-minute
runtime. Fortunately, the album ends with my personal favorite track, “Under
The Moon.” An instrumental tune with soft acoustic instruments, howling wolves
and raindrops. A tune that at times sounds relaxing and at other times very
uneasy, in a pleasant way, that is.
Personally, I felt the music and overall atmosphere of this album to be
its greatest strengths. Innero successfully manages to set up a dark epic
setting with the soaring guitar riffs, effective blast beats and the melodic
and orchestral touches topping it all off! The vocals, however, leave me with highly
mixed feelings. Too often Alces goes for lengthy clean howling and it feels
forced and exaggerated. I personally think his shorter black metal shrieks fare
him better. I also felt that his lines faded away compared to the tunes that
his band colleagues blast out of their instruments.
That being said, however, I still had a very fun time listening to
Innero’s debut and I can certainly invite any black metal fan to give this
Bolognese band a shot! Here’s the song “The Shaman!” Enjoy and… arrivederci !
75/100