Review Summary: A masterpiece of rare beauty. Intense and enveloping, at each listening is always "new" and never predictable.
Storm{0} is a hardcore band formed in Veltre, Italy. The unusual band name comes from the English word 'Storm' (tempeste in Italian) and 'stormo', which means flock of birds in Italian.
The brackets represent stylised birds and the 0 in the middle represents a drop of water. The logo synthesises the two meanings.
Mathematically, the zero in the brackets represents the 'empty set', the proverbial void after the storm.
Stylistically, they are not easy to classify, as the northern Italians go their own way, which sometimes reminds me of Converge.
After one of the most spectacular intros I've heard in recent years, Storm{0}'s mix of aggressive hardcore, crust, screamo, mathcore and even grindcore starts to roll.
Most of the 15 tracks on "Sospesi Nel Vuoto Bruceremo In Un Attimo e Il Cerchio Sara Chiuso" are short and violent, hitting again and again with full force. However, they remain very unpredictable because none of the songs sounds the same. Tempo changes are a common element of the northern Italians. During a song there are often hyper-fast parts followed by very slow and dragging passages and vice versa. The songs are varied and sometimes unpredictable, the short length and the insane drumming and dissonant guitar work are as important as Luca Rocco's aggressive vocals. It is amazing how they always manage to create such a claustrophobic and nihilistic atmosphere. The quality level remains excellent until the very end.
The lyrics are sung in Italian. They are vaguely formulated and mainly revolve around the weakness and uncertainty of the human spirit in relation to everything that makes up our lives, and how this fragility must be addressed and transformed into strength to overcome obstacles and limitations that are often self-imposed.
The production is first class and every instrument sounds superb. I would like to highlight the exceptional bass sound and the wonderfully crisp drum sound.
Hardcore can hardly be produced and mixed better.
To sum up, Storm{0}'s debut album still blows me away today as it did when it was released seven years ago. The authenticity and uniqueness of this record makes it age very well.
It is rare that such a young band manages to sound so mature.
Favorite Tracks:
Supernova
Perché La Bambina Cade
D'istanti
Delle Nostro Vite Appese
Respiro
