Laetitia in Holocaust’s latest EP shows the Italian band further developing their craft of concise but adventurous songs. Defying the indulgence that characterizes many of the modern “technical” extreme metal bands and their associated tropes, Laetitia in Holocaust do aim in their own way at an intense and labyrinthic experience brought forth by rapidly changing tempos and unconventional melodies for black metal.
The rhythm section and in particular the drums prove essential in maintaining a sense of unstable dynamism that keeps the listener on edge, wondering about where the song’s unpredictable flow will lead next. The band’s greatest songwriting asset is the ability to meaningfully situate the individual sections and their contrasts in a greater whole, thus allowing the fast-paced assault to amount to more than fireworks. The way the tension between a pair of riffs gives way to the lead guitar in the first track is a good example, as is the reprise of said pair after a more intense blast-beat section, bringing a sense of relief amids the chaos.
The metal instrumentation withdraws for an interesting closing track, an ambient piece that skilfully evokes a mysterious grandeur in conjunction with the eerie underpinnings that lie at the genre’s essence. This EP not only displays the band at a notable level of confidence but also testifies to this style’s creative possibilities beyond the already typified clichés of technical black/death metal.
