Incantvm (avant-garde black metal) created by clarinettist Vittorio Sabelli (Dawn Of A Dark Age, A.M.E.N.) in 2022, returns this year with Maleficia, released on February 21 via My Kingdom Music. As for the previous opus, he collaborates with Tenebra, Samael Von Martin (Evol, Mater a Cliivis Imperat) and Nequam (The Magik Way) on the voices of witch, demon and inquisitor respectively. Davide Straccione (backing vocals), Lorenzo Mastrogiuseppe (double bass), Luca Tiraterra (drums) and Marco Molino (percussion) are also present. The cover is a photo by Riccardo Ziosi, with Carlotta "Evilla" Vignocchi and Manuel "Baphometh" Casari as models.
Incantvm is inspired by the world of witchcraft and owes its existence to the book Stregoneria crimine femminile, an essay in which Monia Montechiarini attempts to give a voice back to the women of the past who were accused of the worst evils (epidemics, premature deaths...) just because they were foreigners, childless or midwives. This is a historical investigation into trials that actually took place in the Middle Ages against women accused of witchcraft or heresy. The aim is to put forward hypotheses about unsolved crimes and rehabilitate the reputation of the accused. One trial that particularly caught the author's attention was that against Prudentia in 1588, who was suspected of sucking the blood of children, and who gives her name to one of the album's titles.
It's in this atmosphere that Maleficia's form takes on the mystical allure of its subject matter. The anguish of the Inquisition creeps into the hollow of every note. Perhaps because Vittorio is such a passionate and experienced musician, the richness of the work is staggering. The multitude of instruments, voices and styles immerses us in another time and place. Between modernity and antiquity, complexity and simplicity, the album is particularly accessible, keeping the sounds lively (Donna Prudentia, for example, will easily stay in the head and has almost danceable tunes), while Gli esorcismi di Canidia e Sàgana, much more oppressive despite its accordion notes, flirts with more traditional black metal. Note the literary reference to Horace's witch Canidia, an ugly, evil character obsessed by her desire to seduce men, not hesitating to torture a child by arousing in him the desire to eat, in order to elaborate her love potion using "his dried marrow".
The lyrics are densely dark, but the darkness dances with the light, and here the feminine force is dominant, while at the same time allowing a certain melancholy to escape (Diana, the last track, gives the story a bitter taste of sadness ). Incantvm's black metal is rich, clever and even dares to marry it with Mozart's famous Requiem. The liturgical text, first composed for a patron of the arts, took on a double meaning for the musician as his own death approached, leaving him no time to complete his work. If it takes several listens to understand the link between the two, once understood, it becomes so obviously beautiful that it's the Meleficia track not to be missed, once again testifying to the harmony that can exist between black metal and classical music.
