Marea - Adrift EP
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MAREA - ADRIFT EP LABEL: MASKED DEAD RECORDS RELEASE DATE: MAY 9th 2025
The waters carry me where they will. I have given myself up to the ever flowing tides of life, either staring into the fathomless depths of murk and shadow, or watching the beautiful world that flowers and flourishes on the banks as I am carried past. I see faces, hear voices that stir memories as the cycle of light to dark to light turns on around me, as eternal as the river itself. Memories of love and laughter, of tears and pain…joy, grief, contentment, desperation…but none of them enough to keep me from the water. I am borne onwards, ever nearer to the endless sea without a shore, a passive observer upon the waves; rudderless and helpless, separated, isolated, adrift and alone.
A year on from the alluring desolation of debut album, The Silence Of Rust, Matteo Balzarini has returned with a second offering from his atmospheric, emotive post black/doom creation, Marea. Adrift is a quietly remarkable EP, that while continuing the legacy of The Silence Of Rust very much follows its own path. The journey begins with the deeply melodic riffs, measured drums and harsh vocals of ‘Useless’, a song imbued with a sense of movement and space, yet carrying the immense weight of powerful emotions. Vast oceans of melancholy are traversed, but there are moments of bittersweetness, like sunlight briefly catching the crest of waves – while the deeps remain dark and untouched by the light. Beautiful acoustic guitar leads us into the light of ‘Rusted’, a soft cloud of dreams that is then fractured and dismantled by a tattered, torn vocal and intense guitar, the perceived positivity held tantalisingly out of reach, a happiness unattainable. Finally ‘Marea’ descends upon us with a wonderful lightness of touch, a peace summoned through an invocation of the movement of water – of streams, rivers, seas and oceans. There’s a sense of reflection upon a moment and upon a life, a feeling of acceptance and maybe even a harsh joy in the final vocal cries. Adrift is a journey through music and emotion, infused with accrued wisdom, whose affect upon the attentive listener is profound.
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Carlo Meroni (Imago Mortis, Ancient, Kaiserreich etc) Adrift has been blessed with a sound that enhances all the rawness, subtlety and complexity of the emotions that it so successfully conveys. As for the album’s artwork and design, Matteo Balzarini approached artist Francesco Gemelli (Howls Of Ebb, Midnight Odyssey, Venomous Echoes etc) with a very specific brief… “a water-themed landscape that could express desolation, melancholy, but also beauty and poetry,with a graphic style that could resemble watercolour painting”…and suffice to say Gemelli has delivered the perfect visual accompaniment to Adrift. The EP will be released through Masked Dead Records on May 9th and will weave its entrancing spell across the world.
Genre: Atmospheric Post-Black/Doom Metal
For fans of: An Autumn For Crippled Children | Novembre | Katatonia | Lantlos Line-up:
Matteo Balzarini – Guitar/Bass/Vocals
*Drums on Adrift performed by Alessandro Mori (Entirety etc)
*All music and lyrics by Matteo Balzarini
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