Short review…
Impermanence are a band from the city of Kraków, formed two years ago, and hitting the stage with the likes of Sceptic, Aeonian Sorrow, Dargor or Marianas Rest, amongst others. Last year, the band signed with Satanath Records, in conspiracy with Sanatorio Records, to offer us, brave audience, their debut full-length album, which is called Anicca. It is, dixit the bio, ‘a hymn to the fragility that marks our existence’. The word ‘anicca’ has a Buddhist origin, focusing on ‘impermanence’ (hence the band’s name), and the concept too does deal with our place on Earth; the existence of the human kind on this planet – or as far as I am concerned, our irritating and arrogant raison d’être – nope, sorry, once again I am trying to make a distinction in between my personal thoughts on humanity’s being, and this webzine’s focus on ‘Music’ whatsoever…
So, in short: Anicca lasts for almost thirty-six minutes (eight tracks) and has been released physically in an edition of 500 copies. It comes with mysterious visual artwork; something like a tomb / casket lying in a virtual passage of time and space, representing the balance of earthly life and the after-death; hence the Buddhist reference, evidently. Also textually – though I haven’t seen the lyrics – I guess the very same concept might be of elementary essence.
From point of listen, Impermanence spawns a devastating form of Blackened Death Metal, with elegantly composed technical textures, melodious structures, and progressive techniques. It’s intense, forceful and merciless, and at the very same time melodious, harmonic and captivating too. The result is a form of Melodic / Technical / Blackened Death Metal, with fine injections of Doom-Death, Black and even Morbid Death Metal. The harsh vocals and intolerant drum patterns, as well as the merciless, even though harmonious, leads ultra-technical anti-leads (yeah, whatever) and really cool bass lines and fine-tuned background percussion, typify this band’s vile vision – and hey, what about those extremely satisfying tempo-changes (Fugitive, my dearest friends, is a perfected example of this band’s ability to play with both slowed-down passages and intolerant eruptions).
Besides the excellent sound-quality (great mix!), the balance in tempo and harmony too are surpluses. Sometimes blasting like some Morbid Angel alike fury, then again decelerating with an epic attitude à a earlier Unleashed; Impermanence easily combines the tradition of the Old School with modernistic elements; the latter, however, without evolving into some post-progressive experiment. Each single composition is comparable, cf. a very prominent coherence, yet still there is such a diverse execution, such variation. Or, in short: Anicca might be one of the most intriguing Blackened Death albums lately, for it lacks narrow-mindedness, superficiality or boredom; this really is recommendable stuff!
https://satanath.bandcamp.com/album/sat406-impermanence-anicca-2025
https://satanath.com/releases/item/sat406
https://impermanenceofficial.bandcamp.com/album/anicca