Noise Trail Immersion have always been a difficult-to-define, genre-breaking enigma, and that alone has made them one of the most intriguing extreme bands going today. The Italian five-piece kicked off back in 2014 as what you could best describe as a djent-influenced, mathcore group. After breaking out in 2018 with one of the best “blackened mathcore” albums ever written in Symbology of Shelter, their sound continued to shift from their -core roots to the more extreme, accumulating with their last album Curia (2021), which saw them go nearly full dissonant black metal. This “disso-black/death” approach has grown in popularity in recent years particularly through their own label I, Voidhanger, and that sound continues on their new album Tutta La Morte In Un Solo Punto, while notably leaning further into the avant-garde.
From the opening seconds of this album you emerge seemingly in the depths of its madness. Like finding yourself awakening into hell itself, you’re greeted immediately by piercing, ghoulish vocals and chaotic riffing with little to readily steady yourself on. As things take more shape, the unnerving genius of their discordant rhythms and note choices begins to take form, as you're descended upon by the increased range of vocalist Fabio Quinto’s harsh vocal delivery from terrifying blackened screeches to more death metal gutturals. The repetition of this percussion-less, dissonant riff rings out over the end of the opening track and bleeds into the entire intro of the second track, eventually shifting slightly to become the main riff of that song. This recurring song-writing motif gives Tutta La Morte in Un Solo Punto the feeling of being one large continuous movement, like an extended mantra of an occult summoning spell. The selected, sparsely used percussion is repeated on “Sogno A Sé Stante”, a unique interlude of sorts driven mostly by this discomforting clean guitar melody, with quiet, buried screaming and the occasional intentionally under-mixed drum flourish, feeling like they’re echoing up from the depths below.
While the avant-garde side of black and death metal remains some of the most challenging, complex, and least approachable metal there is, its rapid growth in recent years (according to rateyourmusic, there were 65 “dissonant black metal” albums released in 2024, as compared to 25 in 2014) has made it at times difficult to stand out. Often the discernible differences come down to things like production choices, and how they incorporate influences from other genres. In the case of Tutta La Morte In Un Solo Punto, the production is relatively crisp, in line with bands like Ulcerate, while still feeling cavernous and ominous enough when the music alludes to it. During the more dense and abrasively black metal moments every element and layer, the high and low ends, are still audible through the chaos, and the technicality of the more frenetic mathcore-adjacent riffing akin to Serpent Column are given space to shine. Instead, it's often the instrumentation and the song-writing itself that takes on the misanthropic complexity.
The nature of the riffs often feel like they’re teetering on the edge of insanity. This off-kilter-ness to everything gives a discordant sense of instability, yet it’s that second factor I mentioned, the other influences, that provides more grounding. For Noise Trail, that’s evolved into them embracing the atmospheric side of post-metal, and with that has come a great amount of dynamics. There’s bold moments of contrast between oppressive heaviness and unnerving delicate sections allowing for a wider range of emotions, tension building and catharsis. "The idea was to express a deep suffering, even violent and furious, but still an integral part of a cathartic vision, which sees the human experience at its center, in a continuous dialogue and clash between matter and spirit," explains guitarist Daniele Vergine. You can certainly feel those waves of fury and suffering coming through this album, which all-in-all feels like the album they’ve had to push themselves the most for, in its ambition and powerful yet succinct delivery. Through its balance of passion and technicality, Tutta La Morte in Un Solo Punto is one of the most intricate and affecting dissonant metal albums you'll find this year.
Stream or purchase Tutta La Morte in Un Solo Punto through I, Voidhanger Records, out everywhere June 27th.