Unholy Black Metal
  • Gallery
  • Contact

Bhagavat (Switzerland / Italy): “Annunciazione”

17/5/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Bhagavat is a Swiss/Italian black metal project, born in 2005 as a one-man band from Vama’s mind. The initial aim was to create music deeply inspired by the masters of Scandinavian black metal. With the passing of the years, stylistic evolution and the increasing need of live performing led to the research of additional members. This process resulted in a 3-piece lineup composed by Vama (guitar, voice), Mithra (guitar) and Maelstrom (drums). In 2009, the promo cd To Burn a Lair of Snakes was home-recorded and self-distributed. The work received excellent reviews both from Italian and foreign zines, which defined the sound of the band as a violent mixture of black and death metal elements.
 
Packed with a beautiful artwork, the new and first full-length of the band bearing the Italian title of Annunciazione will impress the listener with its fast burst of notes. The album delivers a black / death metal reminiscent of Behemoth for its powerful, violent and technical approach at the same time, although Bhagavat are even more technical. Of course it is not only this and one can also sense Scandinavian influences; e.g. “To Burn in Lair of Snakes” shows that also the melodic and polyphonic approach à la Dissection is significant to Bhagavat. But the Italian-Swiss band is also much inspired by death metal, in particular technical death metal, which is evident from the first note of the album. As already mentioned, Bhagavat are a technical band that bases its sound on complicated riffs, interweaving convoluted phrasings and a variety of rhythmic tempos. For example does “Black Tongue of Ground” not only display hypertechnical riffs but also elegant dissonances; in short, the skills of this band are not to be discussed. But sometimes all this technicality is a little too much and is at the expense of the atmosphere and incisiveness. The exasperated technicality can in the long run lead to a loss of interest on the behalf of the listener. I felt that after a while it was quite hard to listen to the entire album to the end. One of the rare moments of atmosphere that I really enjoyed is in “Il manifesto del malign”, when the guitars stop and their place is taken by the keyboards in accompanying the scream of Vama.

The production is very decent and the sound is good. In short, a good release, but the abuse of technicism sounds a bit like an end in itself; I think it would be better if Bhagavat in the future found a balance between technic and atmosphere.

Notes:
Annunciazione was released on May 8 2015 via Rockshots Music. The digital and physical album can be purchased through the Bandcamp player below.

Personnel:
Maelstrom: Drums
Mithra: Guitars, Vocals (backing)
Vama: Vocals, Guitars

Text by Herjann
herjann@unholyblackmetal.com

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

Unholy Black Metal zine