Album Review: Stormo - Tagli/Talee
Reviewed by Rob Barker
In the January just gone, my own band had the pleasure of sharing a stage with Stormo in a small (but perfectly formed) venue in Coventry, UK. I can honestly say that this is one of the best line-up’s I have had the pleasure of being a part of, and Stormo were a major reason for this. It’s not often I will make a point of purchasing a record by a band I’ve played with (I hasten to add this is mostly due to storage space in my flat, not out of tightfistedness or lack of desire to support other bands, promise, DIY forever etc), however their past release, “Endocannibalismo”, was a record I wanted for my collection based on their live performance alone, and has swiftly become a favourite purchase of this year so far. Therefore, I was very excited to see Stormo’s upcoming “Tagli/Talee” on the list to be reviewed, and snapped it up in a shot. Here’s what I made of it:
Kicking off with Tagli, a less-than-a-minute intro on a gorgeous, sultry, clean guitar (which isn’t to be trusted, by the way), the first of the two title tracks introduces the album before leading on to Sabbia parts one and two; the first of which shows off some beautiful shoegaze-y (almost verging on black metal) chord progressions and influences from the instrumental style, reminiscent of the sound Deafheaven split the crowd on back last decade with Sunbather. Part two of Sabbia likens to the noisescapes of The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ire Works (again, a crowd-splitter in its own right). Sabbia 1&2, whilst early on in the album, start the album as it means to continue in many respects, one of the most noticeable being the length, or rather, shortness, of the tracks. I hasten to add that I find the short tracks to be a huge advantage; far from being a detriment, this short sharp shock of anger works in the bands favour; entering, doing what it needs to do, and leaving before the listener gets any chance to argue. Oh, you liked that section? Tough. It’s not getting repeated, you should have been paying attention the first time!
Shoegaze meets mathcore (Shoecore?) vibes continue with Kallitype furiously and relentlessly pounding on strings and skins to levels leaving the listener wincing at the wall-of-noise not always associated with your run-of-the-mill mathcore act, before continuing on to Sciame, which shows off a different scope in sound and capability for the band without verging away from the feeling that the album has thus far created. One of my favourites of the album this one, and a good Stormo track to introduce yourself (or a consenting friend) to the band. Rami is a nice follow up with more of a chaotic noise feel which the album evolves more in to as it progresses.
Talee signifies the second half of the record, reverting back to the clean guitar of Tagli, this time with the pained screams of vocalist Luca Rocco hitting hard and springing Converge’s All We Love We Leave Behind to mind. Straight into Bordi, which showcases the technical musicianship of Stefano Rutolini (drums), Federico Trimeri (bass), and Michael Barletta (guitar) – a great combination of modern mathcore energy whilst also nodding to more traditional and typical aspects of metal / heavy music at the same time. Riva, another favourite of mine, develops this musicianship further with it’s twisting polyrhythmic arpeggiated sections, before the penultimate track of Alte Mura brings harsh noise, energy and aggression are from the very beginning. The harsh noise continues into the grand finale Come Fauce Che Divora, turning quite nasty in places, pleasantly (or unpleasantly) similar to the stylings of The Body.
Tagli/Talee is a really fucking cool take on the mathcore genre. The influences are both clear and vast, noting aforementioned mathcore heavyweights as TDEP and Converge without being an outright worship to them; likewise to the other clear influence to the sound, the shoegaze elements. Before I heard Stormo, I wondered to myself if they would be anything like their countrymen in Ephel Duath in terms of sound (purely based on them being Italian and in roughly similar genres). The answer is, pretty definitively, no they’re not. They’re their own thing, and they’re damn good at it. Give it a good, loud listen and prepare to enjoy.
Reminded me of – The Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge, Deafheaven
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