Band:	Ver Sacrum
Album:	Tyrrenika
Style:	Black metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	February 2010

01. Plague And Dearth
02. Farewell By The Lightning
03. Nethun's Embrace
04. Ceremony Of Fire
05. The Voice Of Wisdom
06. Hintu
07. Tyrrenika
08. Our Blood
09. Outro

An introduction in latin? Given the music this band plays, it's nice, cos' at least we won't have another album about the Vikings. Sure, said Vikings did set foot on most of Europe, but they're not the only ancient people that can be sung and written about.
And the Italians do have a few choices in this matter. The Roman Empire was maybe too obvious, that's probably why Ver Sacrum chose to write about the Etruscan civilization. There's a lot to say about it, as you can check here.

At this stage, you've probably guessed that we're somewhere in pagan metal territory. Indeed we are, black thrash it is all the way. Here and there one can hear hints of Teutonic Thrash ("Ceremony Of Fire"), or nods to the forefathers of Pagan Thrash, the mighty Sabbat.
The riffs are good, everything is well played, with conviction, but lacks variety on the whole. The songwriting includes some rare but nice melodic moments, and good ideas pop here and there (the introduction of "Tyrrenika").
The production is not bad, but sounds a bit murky and, well, quite old school. Not that it's bad, but you can easily think you're listening to a 15-years old album. I guess that was the band's goal, but I honestly can't say if it's a good idea or not.

On the whole, there's nothing really bad about this album at all. It's neither badly played nor produced, it's not soulless either? The band plays what they love for sure (and that alone makes it a bit endearing), but sadly it is somewhat generic, and leaves no real mark on the listener's memory. Ver Sacrum do have potential, as shown with the good song "Voice Of Wisdom", but they'll have to work hard to carve a place for themselves in the metal world.