Atemporal – Thorn Genesis LP

ATEMPORAL is the solo project of Sebastian Montesi, restless and appreciated musician coming from the ranks of AUROCH, MITOCHONDRION and EGREGORE, some of the best bands of today’s underground metal scene. Wrapped in a beautiful cover by Nether Temple Design and mastered by Gabriele Gramaglia (Cosmic Putrefaction, Vertebra Atlantis), “Thorn Genesis” marks the debut of ATEMPORAL and in it Montesi keeps what the album title promises, giving birth to an occult, bewitched and malicious black metal record.
ATEMPORAL rekindles the burning coals of the blasphemous black metal of the origins, but at the same time translate its lexicon using modern musical formulas, the result of the black/death drifts typical of Montesi’s other bands. Sharp and oblique guitar riffs, mad and dissonant Lovecraftian-flavored melodies, and an unpredictable, chaotic songwriting ensure a sense of giddiness and physical oppression, sublimated in the monstrous 16-minute finale, “Backward Down The Thorny Path.”
Given the pyrotechnic mastery of Sebastian Montesi on the six-string, “Thorn Genesis” could be called an eminently guitar record that moves back and forth between tradition and avant-garde, but in many episodes – thanks to a deliberately raw and scratchy production – it also comes out a strong tribal component, a sort of primitivism that hypnotizes and seduces the listener.
“ATEMPORAL has served as an amphora to be filled with timeless images of human spirituality, fable, and mythology,” Sebastian Montesi says. “As a vessel of esoteric expression I have found it worthy, and now I hand it to you, the wine ready to be poured when you are ready.”