IL VUOTO - Weakness

Il Vuoto - Weakness (2015, Satanarsa Records)

This North Italian one-man project by Matteo Gruppi (Chiral) is a 2015 phenomenon that is in vein with Bell Witch, Skepticism, and other Funeral Doom metal new projects.

Compared to Shape of Despair by the promo people, I think we are nearer to the heavy sounding of Skepticism’s earlier albums and song structures as for their sensitivity of calmer moments. With the song ‘’Sea of Emptiness’’, Gruppi demonstrates a restraint where other behemothic compositions are saturated with noisey and drones. The sounds of waves are a bit clunky but I guess they were an inspiration to the tempo of the song.

An interesting aspect of Funeral Doom metal is that the artists are free to use whatever instrument without much being frown upon. The use of piano and keyboards saturates and brings a dramatic effect to songs. With intermissions of ‘’And Night Took Her’’, Weakness feels like the attempt at making a massive impression in a genre that’s been highlighted a bit with the latest years’ regain of interest for Doom metal in general.

Overall, Weakness is a sincere effort at a subgenre that has not a plethora of followers but the fans are diehard for the few bands that are contributing to the genre. This is an album that I think will please fans of the genre but it may need a bit more noise to compensate the dramatic presence of the piano and violin. There’s a lot of insistence on the sorrow of the album and it is pushing that button a bit too much.

6.3