La quiete: La fine non è la fine (Heroine, 2004)

Convulsive, hot-blooded, this album is internationally regarded as the masterpiece of Italian screamo. For those who are not acquainted to the term, "screamo" designates a very fiery branch of post-hardcore, which evolved from emocore starting from the mid-Nineties. Its defining traits: frantic hardcore drumming, chaotic and coarse guitar swirls, prominent soft/loud dynamics quite close to post-rock and, most of all, harshly shouted vocals - often almost unintelligible.
La quiete gained a devoted cult following thanks to their relentless live activity and their curiously ironic attitude - mostly showcased by their surreal, or even nonsensical, lyrics. Their songs are quick and tense, and their sound is just as impetuous and scratchy. Despite the chaotic feeling of their music, there is a very clever attention to structures, with an enormous density of tempo shifts and a wise ability to balance the impulsiveness with more dilated sections. These latter episodes contribute to make the album somehow dreamy and optimist despite its strongly existentialist/expressionist character: letting the everpresent melodic lines tower above the rest, they momentarily illuminate the angry desolation of the music, creating an "epiphanic" melancholy which is much similar to the one familiar to GYBE! or Explosions in the Sky fans.

La quiete was formed in 2000 in Forlì. This is their first and only album up to now.

Tracklist:

1. Raid aereo sul paese delle farfalle
2. Metempsicosi del fine ultimo: nevrastenica oscillazione fra poli estremi
3. Notte dei cristalli a Rue des Trois-Freres
4. Ciò che non siamo, ciò che non vogliamo
5. Il destino di un ombrello
6. Merce Cunningham
7. Super Omega
8. Uncaged
9. La fine non è la fine

Download (192 kbps)

Similar albums on the blog:

Contropotere: Il seme della devianza (Skuld, 1991)
Kina: Se ho vinto se ho perso (Blu bus, 1989)