Album Review: Lugubrious Garment – In The Wide Vale Of Uncreated Night

Album Review: Lugubrious Garment – In The Wide Vale Of Uncreated Night

Reviewed by Sam Jones

Talk about a band rocketing to my attention. Having never heard of Lugubrious Garment just a month ago, the one-man band’s debut full length had me fixated upon its incredible album art within seconds of seeing it. Formed in 2025, hailing from Milan, Italy, Lugubrious Garment is a new project by mastermind Gabrielle Gramaglia, performing all instruments and vocals, having attained acclaim for his Cosmic Putrefaction material. Now venturing down a road fusing black and death metal with grindcore, Lugubrious Garment could prove to be his most desolate and harrowing work to date. With a release date of October 16th penned in, 20 Buck Spin picked Lugubrious Garment up after the release of their first Demo last year, and soon their debut album titled In The Wide Vale Of Uncreated Night will see daylight . This is a record I’ve been pining to visit and I’m ecstatic since Cosmic Putrefaction has delivered some quality releases lately. Let’s see if Lugubrious Garment continue that streak.

If there’s one thing you can mediated say about this record is that it’s vast. Each of the vocal and instrumental pieces that come together to craft Lugubrious Garment could be deemed as massive and varying connotations of such, yet their sound truly feels to be extending its reach in every direction. Like an encroaching cloud laden with storm and downpour Lugubrious Garment’s sound is weighted with dread as each instrumental component vies for daylight before that aforementioned storm finds you. It is interesting however how bent on development their songwriting is for riffs transform the field numerous times over during a single track. It’s never the same vibe flowing through one track and it’s much more technically minded than one may initially presume.

Furthermore it sports a wondrously unique atmosphere, more akin to some gothic tale of archaic report than a conventionally terrifying vista. As a result, their sound takes on an otherworldly and harrowing aesthetic where one understands there’s danger present but, in what manifestation or corporeality, we know not. The band’s ability establishing a soundscape where you can’t put your finger down on it only pulls us in further as we make some attempt deciphering such an intangibly sounding record, peering into forgotten realms of existence. In addition, the record’s aggression rarely sits in the same place for long as their songwriting gives leeway and places for their intensity to explode, to rest, then return with great strength due to the marked change we previously experienced.

I think the frantic, schizophrenic energy this record embodies is best found in the drumming. Though the guitar work is central to how we view this record, the drums arguably champion this ideal the best with patterns and a performance that, whilst showcasing the band’s wavelength style where their power duos and climbs, never truly stops. I’d love to sit back and actively count the number of times the drumming completely changes pending on the songwriting; it can be segmented, blasting out, intricately arrayed, minimal, entirely utilised. I respect the decision to give them just as much presence on record as any riff too; given this is a one-man band, Gabrielle Gramaglia made sure every one of his efforts is audibly noticeable and can be picked up by the audience. The great advantage to recording and producing everything yourself; you have total control over how you aspire your work to be.

For all the extremity Lugubrious Garment pack into their sound it’s amazing how grounded and easy to follow it is. Learning this is a fusion of back and death metal, and with Grindcore thrown in, that this would be a breakneck display of savagery. It certainly does live up to that expectation but we would be remiss thinking this is the sole aesthetic Lugubrious Garment offer, for multiple sections of this record feel crafted to not only draw regular heavy metal listeners in but to potentially act as a gateway record of sorts. Yet that transitioning between pummelling and streamlined songwriting never feels forced nor too rapidly developed to take you from one moment to the next. It’s refreshing to encounter a record that’s happy to release its fist momentarily, thus providing breathing room and the allowance to relax if but for a moment.

In conclusion, In The Wide Vale Of Uncreated Night is a genuine anomaly in the vein of black/death metal. If you have this record to some versed in that particular fusion of extreme metal they might look at you perplexed, for Lugubrious Garment’s work here is very unlike what we’ve experienced before. It manages to be thoroughly devastating and yet, just a minute later, can shed all its virulent form to become something terribly approachable. It’s this peculiar work, like the faint allure of spectral will-o-wisps enticing you towards them; it hits you square in the chest and then it’ll feel like it’s moving through you, taking hold, numbing all senses. I’m fascinated with this project and I’d certainly be interested to see more material by Lugubrious Garment. This is a strong debut for sure.

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