PROGENIE TERRESTRE PURA — U.M.A. (review)

PROGENIE TERRESTRE PURA — U.M.A. album cover

Album · 2013 · Atmospheric Black Metal

5/5 · 2013-05-28
adg211288

U.M.A. is the debut full-length album by Italian black metal act Progenie Terrestre Pura. It was released in 2013, funnily enough exactly two years to the day since their prior demo release, the simply titled Promo 2011, came out. Both the tracks from the demo reappear on U.M.A. bookending the album. Progenie Terrestre Pura consists of just two members, the enigmatically named Eon[0] (music) and Nex[1] (vocals). U.M.A. stands for Uomini, Macchine, Anime. It means Men, Machines, Souls, in case you were wondering.

The music on U.M.A. is primarily atmospheric black metal, but there are also progressive metal elements to be found. Outside of the metal spectrum the band also draws on psychedelic ambient (psybient) and space ambient music. Black metal bands have long proven that such ambient forms of music work well when they play atmospheric black metal, with Burzum being, I think, the most well known example, and it’s no different for Progenie Terrestre Pura, who on U.M.A. provide an excellent mix of the styles, including the fully ambient track La Terra Rossa Di Marte in the middle of the five track album. That’s right, just five tracks, but over fifty minutes of music, so expect some really sprawling compositions here including the thirteen minute dead and album highlight Sovrarobotizzazione.

The vocal delivery from Nex[1] comes across as being very much integrated into the overall atmosphere that Progenie Terrestre Pura create. His growl is not really typical of black metal in that he has a whisper like quality, or sounds as if he’s some distance away from the music, if you get my drift. Perhaps a better description would be is that most in music you can put the vocals on a different layer to the instruments, and that layer is the one above the music so what when the vocalist is delivering lines, they’re the centre of attention. The music is behind them in the mix. It’s different on U.M.A., as if Nex[1] is on a layer below the music. Or perhaps on the same one, it’s more important to this description to make clear where his vocals aren’t in the mix rather than where they actually are. It’s an approach that is played to great effect on the album in any case, whether you understand my attempts to describe what it sounds like or not, which as you may have gathered I’m finding quite difficult. There are also some clean vocals used during Sovrarobotizzazione and Sinapsi Divelte, which retain the same effect.

On U.M.A. Progenie Terrestre Pura have crafted something really special in my opinion. Not only is their take on atmospheric/ambient black metal more unique than most, not to mention a refreshing change from the current run of post-rock infused blackgaze acts, but it’s also a mighty fine slab of black metal which at year’s end looks set to be included among the best black metal releases of the year. U.M.A. is atmospheric black metal with true emphasis on the atmospheric part. An exceptional grade rating is deserved.

94/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/progenie-terrestre-pura-u-m-a-t2985.html)