Corazzata Valdemone — Adunate

‘Totalitarian Industrial’, is what Italian Corazzata Valdemone labels the overtly militaristic noise showcased on his new album ‘Adunate’, released on strictly limited CDR via German label Castellum Stoufenburc. Notably Valdemone is part of Neo-folk act ‘Kannonau’, who draw upon the ‘classical roots of Mediterranean culture’ and combine their sound with experimental elements, which lean to the darker more mystical side of nature. The same ideologies run true throughout ‘Adunate’, but in this guise, the sound is stripped back to a martial industrial framework combined with spoken word, military tradition and noise, all the while playing heavily on the theatrical elements of each piece.

‘Romana’, the first track on the record, starts with sounds of aircraft layered over stolen segments of pompous historical content, before breaking into a spoken word segment (regrettably I do not speak Italian!). From here the piece works its way through more scenes of militaristic intent and bursts of disassociated power electronics. Right from the word go, you get the sense that the work is not especially coherent, instantly ruining any semblance of flow in the process.’ The Last Battle’ shows a little more promise at the start as an evil sounding analogue drone breaks in, accompanied by a layer of swirling sub bass and deep atmospherics. Small bursts of surface energy crackle intermittently; vocal recordings are played in the background which dial down the bombast introduced by the opening track, in favour of a more subtle, creeping ambience. ‘Berlin Caput Mundi’ follows roughly the same pattern as its epic predecessor, incorporating sounds of distress, interjected with vocal snippets, all brought together by shifting layers of granular noise.

‘The Punishment’, from what I can work out, is a traditional Italian song, with little much else done to it artistically, a straight up sample acting only as an intermission before continuing with ‘Ei Fu’. Another epic track totalling in at nearly 12 minutes, ‘Ei Fu’ stands on its own with an underlying malevolence prevalent throughout and its one of the only pieces that works as a whole in my opinion. ‘Kollaps’ and ‘Il Silenzio’ leave you feeling cold by the end, the final track itself being just another historical piece with no discernable alteration or attempt at creativity. Overall ‘Adunate’ is a poor effort, the release never really sits quite right, there are points at which you catch a glimmer of what could be, but essentially its nothing which you have not heard done, a lot better, numerous times before.