As is the custom in Italy, even the obscenest artists are well-versed in the classics.
Upon signing with Season of Mist in 2022, Northern Italia’s Miscreance were likened to Death, Sadus and other undying greats from the alternate timeline that is the history of extreme metal. Fashioned in high-top sneakers and sleeveless band shirts, bassist Jean-Claude Rossignol, guitarists Andrea Granauro and Tommaso Cappelletti, and drummer/vocalist Andrea Feltrin proudly reflect the genre’s old-school spirit. But while its tech-thrash riffs and proggy tempo shifts will remind battle-tested heshers of the golden years, their second album isn’t just another blast from the past.
“Through a collective hallucination, a voyage through time led us to discover a moment in human history that was lost”, the band says about the far-out path they took to their new album. “Reminiscence is a testimony of what we have seen, heard, perceived and imagined, told through our own perspective on old-school, thrashy, technical death metal”.
In 2018, Miscreance quickly emerged onto the metal scene as a welcome mutation. While their initial incubation period under prior name Atomic Massacre fit the mold of Slayer, Kreator and Sodom, the band turned their morbid fascination with classic horror films and late ‘80s to early ‘90s tech-thrash into a debut that, while faithful to both Atheist and Dark Angel, gave the OSDM revival a much-needed jump scare. Convergence not only drew the favor of France’s premiere metal label but also attention from Decibel, New Noise and other international press.
“We’re left wondering how band members who look so young also seem so well-steeped in so many different genre influences, and how technically masterful and wildly inventive they are in their songwriting”, No Clean Singing wrote upon the album’s release in 2022. “They seem inherently resistant to taking the easy way forward, and equally resistant to just mimicking their most prominent thrash metal forebearers”.
Reminiscence isn’t an attempt to recall metal’s glory days. Opener “Trait d’Union’ doesn’t begin with blast beats but funky, bouncing, tribal percussion one associates with a time long before the dawn of Charvel guitars. “We still play old-school tech-thrash”, assures Granauro. With its eerie handcam footage, the music video for the album’s lead single will give tape collectors warm and fuzzy memories. However, while the band shred at a blood-thirsty pace, “Scalp Ceremony” bangs the long-haired heads of their captive audience with a flurry of bongos.
“We are all very happy with how our first album turned out, but we wanted to go bigger by tying Reminiscence to a specific concept”, Cappelletti explains. “Adding the tribal instruments to certain songs deepens the connection to the overall story that the album is telling”.
While recorded in Italy, Miscreance discovered the concept for Reminiscence by sifting through the sands of time. Along with splintering riffs and trippy tempo shifts, the band uncovered a hidden world where jungle-dwelling hunters and digeridoo coexist with strange tongues, telepathic surgeries and a burning celestial corpse. As imagined by Iranian artist Mona Shiraz, the album’s cover art is a modern interpretation of the kind of painting that was all the rage during the Stone Age. “What we’ve created is a ‘lost album’”, Rossignol says. “It comes from an unknown civilization that’s both futuristic and extremely primitive. Through psychic powers and capabilities that transcend earthly comprehension, these primordial extraterrestrials have achieved total neural unity. Yet innate wickedness still lures inside of them, harboring the need for preys, scalps and lust”. Climbing “The Moaning Hill” is not for the faint of heart, but the intricate twists along its perverse path lead to truly sacred pleasures.
“You’ve never known the face of death / But now it becomes yours”, Feltrin growls amidst the many peaks hidden within “Oracle’s Rift”. As the band tear through a torturous passage with ruthless precision, the last thing you see – or hear – is death metal’s future mutating right before our eyes.
With Reminiscence, Miscreance unlock a mind-altering experience of old-school technical death metal.
Lineup:
Andrea Feltrin — Drums, Vocals
Jean-Claude Rossignol — Bass
Tommaso Cappelletti — Guitars
Andrea Granauro — Guitars
Guest Musicians:
Leo Di Angilla — Percussion, Digeridoo, Flute, Berimbau
Recording & Production Credits:
Recording Studio — Bridge Produzioni Audio in Susegana, Italy
Mixing and Mastering Studio — Majestic Studio in Silea, Italy
Producer — Marino De Angeli
Mixing, Mastering and Sound Engineer — Marino De Angeli
Cover Art:
Mona Shiraz
Follow Miscreance:
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/artist/miscreance/1502815524
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2v4mzDLx1JSnxzq8CsYDzD
Bandcamp: https://miscreance.bandcamp.com/music
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC09Rq5Qo2p914wCf7PVFjqQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Miscreance/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miscreance_official/
