Band:	Nero Di Marte
Album:	Derivae
Style:	Alternative metal, Extreme progressive metal
Release date:	October 27, 2014
A review by:	R'Vannith

01. L'Eclisse
02. Clouded Allure
03. Pulsar
04. Dite
05. Simulacra
06. Il Diluvio
07. Those Who Leave

Sometimes it's difficult to discern what is truly progressive in metal. This is providing we all have preconceived notions of what it means for artists to push at the identifiable territorial boundaries of music that are more familiar to us, and facilitate sounds external to generic confines. The prospect of a band finding themselves located somewhere between Gojira, Tool and Ulcerate is something I could never have anticipated. Yet Nero Di Marte leave listeners in anticipation with each careful note, echoing technicalities throughout primordially death metal perpetuating atmosphere and flowing forms of sound hitherto uncharted. Exploration persists in Derivae.

There are few structural boundaries, and little to no restriction is placed upon the expanse navigated here. I am vaguely reminded of Virus' avant-garde pursuit of hell knows what, and in soundscapes hell knows where. A similar sense of a persistent compositional traverse centred on an evident and coherently applied stylistic locus is established in this well structured record defined by its consistent movement and progression. Not a great deal should be read into a comparison of styles between Virus and this Italian group, as they ultimately sound quite disparate overall, though both of them do manage a comparable construct in a record; that is to experiment in album contexts with distinct atmospheric homogeneity.

As is demonstrated in Derivae, such an aim is characterised by purposeful meandering through continually form shifting tones and technical chords with a climactic vision that can be identified as progressive metal's equivalent to post-metal, which grant an atmospheric ascendancy and structural fluidity to the album's seven lengthy tracks. Their basis and point of origin in death metal continues to be influential in this second record, which is quickly successive to their self titled debut in 2013, though their beginnings in death metal seem increasingly distant, and are a distortedly remote mark on the elemental horizon left far behind. What they've now entered into is a progression of style in every way.

Often will the bass be found grinding and churning away within the mix, occupying gritty lines in a space beneath the densely presented guitars and immersive atmospheric miasma which successfully transpose listeners to alternate planes, to places where laws of generics no longer seem relevant or applicable. Ongoing throughout the experience are accessible points of melody that gradually take shape within the mass of sound, within which the slowly yet technically delivered and death metal influenced guitar tone carves out the way forward in a manner similar in purpose to post-metal, with denser heavy segments pressing through the strong control over atmospherics, as well as higher end guitar lines. Percussion ensures the path remains direct yet it's consistently at work as the busiest of instruments in introducing an untamed nature to the primary basis in technically replicated guitar patterns. The vocal performance is less of an extreme approach and less aggressive than the likes of Gojira, and are more readily associated with the alternative metal leanings of the record as a whole with their primarily clean delivery, bearing a mildly harsher edge.

This album finds an unusual and original climate in which to engage listeners who are appreciative of both a more extreme variant of progressive metal and the atmospheric aims of post-metal. Derivae's most clearly distinguishing feature is its demonstration of Nero Di Marte's clear sense of individual ingenuity.