Italy’s VISCERA/// have been at it for quite some time now, never really breaking the mainstream wall or enjoying considerable success. And it’s a real shame, because this band has existed since 2003, making some of the most genre-defying and enigmatic forms of metal ever seen. They have toured all over Europe multiple times, traveling as far as Israel, and shared the stage with many international acts. They have released two full length albums to date on labels like Consouling Sounds and Hypershape, and have released numerous splits, EPs and collaboration albums, never ceasing to amaze in their constant and fearless push for the stylistically unknown. VISCERA/// were born at the turn of the millennium in Cremona, Northern Italy, as a straightforward and brutal as fuck gore-grind band in the vein of early Carcass, Agathocles, Regurgitate, Leng Tch’e etc – as their debut Entrails Defecation demo candidly purveyed. By the time their debut full-length album – the insanely underrated and majestic Cyclops – had come around, the band had already morphed into a psychedelic beast, incorporating vast and introspective drone and space rock passages in their blasting terror, along with introducing complex and profound philosophical themes in their lyrics, to become one of the most original and groundbreaking bands to ever come out of Italy. Their followup 2: As Zeitgeist Becomes Profusion of the I pushed further in such direction, essentially transforming VISCERA/// into an extreme metal/post-rock enigma torn between beautiful and refined sound sculpting, enigmatic lyrics, tortured vocals, and crushing guitars – played across, epic, vast, and winding compositions.
Today, VISCERA/// are about to release their third album titled 3: Release Yourself Through Desperate Rituals – another shapeshifting and undefinable shimmering alloy of extreme metal and sonic introspection that is impossible to truly define and which shows the band once again traveling on an ungraspable trajectory into the sonically unknown. Coming a staggering seven years after their previous record, 3 introduces shorter song lengths, even more intelligible lyrics and themes, a more marked hardcore/punk urgency, and even further abstraction, wildly enhanced by conceptual underlying theme of the album that living is suffering and as such demands widespread suicide. With a plethora of allusions in sound and approaches that range from Godflesh, to The God Machine, to early Isis, to Nasum, Celtic Frost and Paradise Lost, VISCERA/// have once again created something completely undefinable that will leave most of us baffled and confused but which will ultimately – as always – place the band standing entirely on their own planet and in their own universe as the rest of the world tries to look in and understand their mysterious intents and vision.
3: Release Yourself Through Desperate Rituals can be pre-ordered from the band, and will be released on May 5 2017 through WOOAAARGH (DE), Drown Within Records(IT), and through Unquiet Records (PL) on CD, and through Toten Schwan on tape. Keep an eye out for a limited vinyl release to soon follow this summer.
