I've listened to previous Fornace albums here and there, the band goes back to around 2000 but have only released three albums to date; the previous stuff I've heard was a solid mixture of black and death metal centered around dark atmopsherics and catchy but malevolent riffs, drawing somewhat from the Hellenic field of pioneers like Varathron, Rotting Christ and (to a lesser extent) Necromantia. Over the yearss this Italian band developed a fairly straightforward approach to their brand of barbarous blackened violence, but Fornace always manage to throw a curveball into their listening experience that makes 'em one of the more interesting bands that I've picked up recently from the Paragon catalog. 2018's Wrath

The sheer diversity of the epic-length songs and the intricate assemblage of it all hints at an underlying progginess, but it's overshadowed by the immensity of the hypnotically repetitive passages, sharply skillful transitions, all flowing deliberately and fluidly; this easily lines up as the best album Fornace has delivered so far.

But you wouldn'y\t know it from the first song...

That opening song had me glowing. You see a title like "Experience The Joy Of Unhappiness" and you think you have a mopefest coming your way, but this first song is actually a rather unpected burst of super-catchy blackened jangle, all instrumental, huge grandiose major chords roaring in the dying twilight, the main chord progressions having that infectious punk quality that Ghost Kommando, Wóddréa Mylenstede and some of the Peste Noir stuff has, a quirky melodicism that flies in the face of the album's visual aesthetics yet works ferrociously as a kicker to this hour-long nocturnal rite, the song sounding like some kind of weirdly catchy energy and guitar sound that evokes early Dinosaur Jr. or Husker Du, but most definitely filtered through an abrasive, distorted, blackened aggression. The closer follows suit, "Her Beauty In Those Days" sprawling out it's strange dismal mid-paced blackened rock and alternating it with faster sections that center around the song's main melodic hook; it's "poppy" enough that I'm pretty sure fans of stuff like Alcest and Lantlos would dig the hell out of it, but doesn't sacrifice those snarling, despairing shrieks and rampaging double bass and massive amp-rumbling power. I'm a HUGE fan of stuff like this. When they break down into some of their more rocking mid-tempo sections on other songs like "Bare" and "Morti", and "Under The Bright Cursed Star" , you continue to hear a little more of that unusual open-chord melodicism, only soaked more fully and deeply into the surrounding frost-charred intensity, that vaguely "punky" stripped-down energy that bores its many earworms into your head, often fading into the distance. Another standout is "La Notte Dei Morti", were the rhythm section come to the fore and lock on this hypnotic groove that features some almost Bauhaus-esque bass guitar, everything awash in muted sheets of guitar glaze, before the band abruptly whips themselves back up into another whirlwind of heart-rending blast. But that first song, man, it's a banger.

I'm definitely a big fan of Fornace's guitar sound, it adds a nicely unique aspect to their white-hot ferocity. It's all just so goddamn catchy.