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TITAAN - ITIMA [ATMF - 2020]

One-man black metal projects often create some of the more creative & daring takes on the genre, one such project is Italian based TITAAN, whose only member is Lalartu, whose also the vocalist of black metal  band Diĝir Gidim. There’s not much info to be found about TITAAN- it presently has two albums to its  name- 2016's debut Kadingir - an almost one hour and ten minutes of intense atmospheric Death / Black metal mixed with Dark Ambient moments, and this recently released album ITIMA- which like all the projects work is  themed around ancient Sumerian mythology. The new album was released in the form of vinyl LP of two types - white and black, and a CD. These options, as well as the digital version of the album, are available for pre-order on the label's website and on its Bandcamp page.

The album cover is monochrome, and is full of symbolism. Against a starry cosmic background, in the center, there is a foggy image of some heraldic creature resembling a chimera. Above it's head is a crescent moon, above this you can see the foggy silhouette of a dragon spreading its wings. These images are enclosed in a kind of framework consisting of a nebula that smoothly transforms into something similar to a DNA helix. A little higher is the image of the arch and some element with horns or spikes - it rather resembles something organic, as in the works of H.R. Giger. All this graphic composition is enclosed in a gray rectangular frame with the top in the form of an arch and floral ornaments. The title of the project and album is not featured. The cover seemed to be quite a successful and good artwork, even though the symbolism may not clear in in it's meaning.  I am sure that everything depicted on the cover has some definite meaning. The only controversial point here is the use of the main arch-frame, which the entire drawing is set in- this element quite often used by designers, as freely available on the Internet & somewhat clichéd.

Unlike the project's first album that featured sixteen tracks, "ITIMA" is a single track, with a duration of around forty-six minutes. With ITIMA, TITAAN continues the line of music launched on Kadingir. This is a high-speed and atmospheric Death / Black metal, which, it seems to me, closer to Death metal. Black metal here is reminiscent of a specific guitar sound, characteristic vocals and the presence of a large number of keyboards, as well as very interesting and atmospheric Dark Ambient and acoustic inserts. As I already mentioned, the album is  a single track, however, in truth, these are several tracks that Lalartu conceptually combined into one composition. The same could have been done with the debut album. Metal moments alternate with rather gloomy Ambient parts, which carry Dark and Ritual Ambient, as well as light touches of Industrial and Noise. Parts of the composition made in the metal style are high-speed parts that suddenly starts and ends, giving way to Ambient. I can’t say that I heard loads of melody here. There is a melodic component, but it is rather stingy and limited to a harmonious sequence of notes or chords. The sound of the guitars seemed a little blurry to me. As I already said - in their structure, riffs are more reminiscent of death metal, that is, they carry more technicality than a melodic component. Accordingly, for this type of technique, the sound of guitars should be drier and harder. But here you can hear a more typical black metal sound, which sometimes turns riffs into a poorly recognized noise. Honestly, I did not hear the bass part- Perhaps it's not there at all. I liked the sound of the drums for its clarity, but it seemed to me that when mixing, the drums brought to the fore and now they very often play the role of the main instrument, drowning out and crushing the sounds of guitars. Perhaps because of this, the guitar parts seemed unclear to me. As for vocals, I can say that Lalartu is a great vocalist with a rather rich range. His black metal vocals reminded me of the tone of Mika Luttinen from Impaled Nazarene. But Lalartu's vocals are a little more diverse because he can also do clean vocals, as well as various whispers and wheezes in Ambient moments. Keyboards mainly play a supporting role, or sometimes create an emphasis in some ñompositional moments.


In general, the album seemed to be harmonious and whole. We find a very rich and dark atmosphere that absorbs the listener and carries one into cosmic horrors. Though maybe it would have better if the large track had been split into a few tracks, for ease of play.   For comparisons  I’d say Limbonic Art and Darkspace, I think that ITIMA is very worthy and creative work. I'm sure many Black metal fans will appreciate it.

Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5

Sergey Pakhomov
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