Established in 2015 at the foot of the Calvana massif, Italy's Calvana exist solely to amplify the voice of the mountain as a singular, monolithic entity. To preserve this focus, the identities of the members remain shrouded in total anonymity. To date, two equally cryptically titled albums - 2020's I? and 2022's III+ - stand as the documentation of their work, singular and defiant.
Now, Calvana emerge from the darkness with their third full-length, Sub Janus. As trend-free as ever, the record captures the primal rage of the peaks and the elemental wrath of nature, forged in the fires of old-school black metal. Rough and robust, their roiling screeds of fury remain as potent as ever, locating that ever-elusive balance between the cryogenic and the lava-like. All instruments hold equal weight in their rustic, all-analog soundfield - particularly bass guitar, an instrument often relegated to nonexistence in black metal - further grounding Calvana's elemental nature. Similarly, their old-school black metal truly does sound OLD on Sub Janus, never recalling anything remotely modern nor much else from the darkest past; the songwriting weaves through various states of hypnotic violence, with grim marches dotting the stark landscape, but perhaps only domestic enigmas Altar of Perversion could be the closest reference.
