Album Review: Stormo - Endocannibalismo
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Italian Post-Hardcore crew, Stormo, make their Prosthetic Records debut this month with the release of their fourth album, Endcannibalismo. Rather than simply being a portmanteau word, the practice of endocannibalism can be found spread across villages in the Amazon and is a death ritual in which family members consume the flesh of the deceased in order to take on that person’s wisdom.
A serious – if somewhat unsavoury – subject matter to use as the title for a record, but this is perhaps Stormo’s veneration of the music and influence of their countrymen La Quiete, Raein, Negazione, Wretched and Indigesti, all of whom are cited by the band as being instrumental in the progression of Stormo since its inception.
So deep is this link to their native land that Stormo have resisted the urge to sing in English, preferring the mother tongue instead, though both Italian and English versions of the lyrics were included in the version I received. But, composing in Italian didn’t seem to harm the careers of Puccini, Rossini, Verdi or their ilk, so Stormo have precedent to continue.
From the outset Stormo are willing to let the music do the talking and the raw sound and huge low end of Valichi, Oltre [Pass, Beyond according to the Interweb] hits in wave after wave of uncompromising power. Second track, PV77, picks up the pace and revels in a pummelling beat and urgent vocals atop a dirty guitar tone. It’s here, that the seeds of much of the rest of the record are planted, as the first instances of eccentric riffing starts to show their faces.
By the time Anabasi arrives with its doomy intro, those hints of off-beat rhythms and schizophrenic riffs have become the foundation for the whole of the song. Luca Rocco’s spoken word extoling seals the deal that this is intended as something more than just another song.
This pattern is repeated for much of the second portion of Endocannibalismo, through many differing incarnations; be they the seismic rumbling and grooving of Frame or the raw, uncompromising nature of the title track or the more straightforward versions of Disequilibrio [Imbalance] and Vipere, Ombre [Vipers, Shadows]
I wouldn’t want you to think this record is some sort of mathcore, polyrhythmic exercise in musical self-debasement; Stormo have used the ideas sparingly and within the overall context of the album. You won’t suddenly be confronted by a Dillinger or a Mr Bungle-type track, only hints and suggestions of the insane science at work here.
It’s not all experimentation and eccentricity as the Italians are more than happy to serve up a few slices of non-nonsense, in your face, intensity. Sorte [Fate]begins with a neo-traditional introduction before dropping into a huge blast of uncompromising intensity; Spire lands with the same unrelenting aim, making room for a little bit of groove along the way. Both Deserti [Deserts] and Sopravvivenza e Frome [Survival and Forms] return Endocannibalismo to the wrecking machine it was created to be.
There’s strong work done throughout from the musical components of Stormo, with Federico Trimeri’s bass and Stefano Rutolini’s drums working in perfect harmony, giving Giacomo Rento’s guitars a platform from which to weave weird magic.
At times brutal, at times hypnotising, Endocannibalismo is definitely worth thirty-minutes of your time and, if the only thing stopping you is the lack of English then think about those great Arie: Nessun Dorma, Ch’ella mi Creda, Il Dolce Suono; or basically any Rammstein record.
