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 Marthe

“Further in Evil” (Southern Lord, 2023)

I was completely unaware of the existence of this project, and only today stumbled upon it while scrolling on a very famous Black Metal group on Facebook. While reading the description of a photo, I saw The Devil’s Blood and Mediterranean Heavy Metal influences mentioned, as well as Antifascism and Italy. Scrolled down a bit more and read Bathory. Went straight to YouTube and added Tiamat, “Clouds” era (vocals at times), to it. It might sound a bit strange and misplaced, but let me tell you: it bloody works.

Marthe is composed of one single musician, Marziona Silvani – stage/artist name, Marzia – and she has been around for some time. From what I understood, Marthe started out while Marzia was still rocking the drums in Ancient Cult, an Italian Heavy Doom band that since then closed the doors on existence. That gave way for Marzia to move forward and blast it all out with Marthe!

Marthe is a very curious entity. Sound-wise, it has plenty of Heavy Doom elements – maybe that is what lead Greg Anderson and SOMA to pick it up – 1st wave Black Metal, mostly Bathory around the time of “Blood Fire Death” with some “Hammerheart” brushes, and I get some Tiamat, circa “Clouds”, thing. Nonetheless, this is very well-balanced and well-executed! Man, I love Italian Black and Dark Metal! Love their food, love them, love their Heavy Metal! “Victimized”, for instances, resembles Black Sabbath a lot… maybe a tad faster, but really cool! And that is how the remainder of the record goes: marvelous homage to various Heavy Metal artists, that when merged, lead to this monster record! I love this era of Doom Metal, and I love Bathory, especially the more Viking oriented albums, so… love is all around!

This “cross contamination” is what gives the music this aura of excellence. Marzia is not crafting a musical genre from nothing, nor is she reinventing the genres to a point of complete disfiguration. She takes bits and pieces from the music she loves and puts them together in a way that pleases her. This is music that truly takes me back to that ancestral, almost primitive form, of what Heavy Metal is! That force of Nature, an avalanche of power and fury! And Marzia has the ability to, in a very simple way – not simplistic – craft such a structure, such a powerful experience. “To Ruined Altars…” is such an addictive track! The whole thing sounds familiar… and refreshing!

“Further in Evil” is such a cool record. One of those examples of effective Heavy Metal, d’you know what I mean?! Mercyful Fate and Cirith Ungol are my go-to bands when people ask me what Heavy Metal is (mostly The King, of course). The ethos of these bands is Heavy Metal in its primeval form; Masters Hammer, another example of Black Metal that is Black to the core, yet so well-crafted it takes you to different dimensions within the genre. I hope you do get the point I am trying to make. In conclusion: Marziona Silvani did a brilliant job and I hope more people get to listen to it – but actually listen to it – and realize she is on a very good way to something quite special.

Marthe Official Bandcamp

Southern Lord Official Bandcamp



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