From all Black Metal albums in many languages I’ve received “Fra Li Monti Sibilini” is the first in Italian. My dear child of the night might find saying this strange, but the language changes a bit the impression of the song. It affects the cadence of the lyrics, so, all the melody. There are melodies that work fine in some languages, but they don’t work well in others. I have to say that in this album Italian works perfectly giving it a kind of more ethereal mood combined with the medieval moments here and there. Of course, nothing of this is in vain or random as Hesperia are a one-man concept band focused on Italian culture and history. Hesperia is the ancient and obscure name of the Italic lands ruled by the mythological sovereign Hesperus.
“Fra Li Monti Sibilini” also surprises the fan for being extremely long with 14 tracks and most of them having about an average of seven minutes. What Hesperia do here is a combination of the raw and fierceful Black Metal with the melodic and envolving Power Metal related to Rhapsody. It’s the raw and relentless spirit of the most cruel Black Metal combined with grand orchestrations and medieval music producing a mood that made me jump out of my skin. The outcome is an album that will catch the attention of any metalhead regardless the kind of Metal music he likes. Hesperia produced an album that goes beyond any frontier that exists in Metal music. It’s an album to give it time to be heard with calm and attention. Each detail here is important. As a project the album explores “the pre-Roman era with a tetralogy based on the Roman poem Aeneid and the Roman era with two volumes about Rome, it’s now time for the Medieval Italic age: “Fra Li Monti Sibillini (Black Medieval Winter Over The Sibylline Mounts)” is a Medieval journey through the Sibylline Mounts, located in central-eastern Italy (Marche region, the region of Hesperus), filled with obscure legends and a truly dark history: heretics, witches, alchemists, necromants, goat fairies, the Inquisition, hidden villages/mountains/gorges, and… the sorceress Sibylla.” So, each track tells one tale always connection the real with the unreal, a thing Black Metal does best.
I’ve heard lots of concept albums, albums that tell stories, albums that connect the real world with the unreal or fantasies, but “Fra Li Monti Sibilini” is the one that makes it in such a wondrous way. Each track fits the story it tells both musically and all the iconography it connects. Its really impressive the way Hesperia make all the connections alternating the most vicious moments with the delicate images their mind dares to produce. It’s also impressive the way the band alternates and intertwines all atmospheres and moods regrading to the stories it tells. “Cecco D’ascoli Atto II: L’Inquisizione/Il Rogo,” puts in the same bag the vbiolence of Black Metal with some acoustic moments and even some Jazz. Can an album be so perfect?
Long sory short, “Fra Li Monti Sibilini” is a breathless testimony of Hesperia‘s ability to make music. After listening to the album, the burning question is how far can Black Metal go?
Hesperia “Fra Li Monti Sibilini” will be released on January 17th via Hammerheart Records.
Track Listing:
- Fra Le Nevi De Li Monti Sibillini (Preludio)
- La Grotta De La Sibilla Atto I: L’Qrrivo A L’Hostaria
- La Grotta De La Sibilla Atto II: Il Regno De La Sibilla
- La Grotta De La Sibilla Atto III: La Fuga/La Salvezza
- Notte A Foce: Saltarello, L’Ballo De Le Fate
- Mons Daemoniacus: Nero Paese De La Scomunica
- Notte A Vallegrascia: Echi Di Antiche Feste Piceno-celtiche
- La Leggenda Del Lago Di Pilato
- Notte A Rocca: Ombre Pagane Sul Fiume Aso
- Jòppe Le Gole De L’Infernaccio
- Notte A Montegallo: Echi De Le Sdreghe A Lu Sabba
- Cecco D’ascoli Atto I: L’Eretico, Il Necromante
- Cecco D’ascoli Atto II: L’Inquisizione/Il Rogo
- Solstizio D’inverno Fra Li Monti Sibillini (Fine)
Watch “La Grotta De La Sibilla Atto I: L’Qrrivo A L’Hostaria” official music video here:
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!