Ilsa - Tutti il Colori del Buio

Never mind that the name Ilsa was based off a sexy star of 'She Wolf Of The SS;' the band pretty much goes for more of the gnarly and wild side of music rather than dark and sexy. 'Tutti il Colori del Buio' is the band's second album- just barely released a year after their debut- and then again on Dark Descent records for widespread distribution. There is nothing new to add to the mix (save for new cover art that is pretty impressive compared to the original), but it is most likely that not too many fans got their hands on one of the orignal 300 copies that came out last year. Ilsa is a mix of crust death metal with slight elements of doom. The harsh, gritty atmosphere however makes it pretty hard to distinguish these differences; when listening to a track like "Blue Moon Haze," all one can make out is the chugging static, crashing cymbals, and roaring, enraged vocals which sound a bit like Elitist's work. The slow pace is reminiscient of doom metal, and thankfully it helps make the music a bit more accessible because it is already raw enough. If it went any faster, it would most likely be a blur of noise. Tracks like "Frostthrower" can creep up on a listener and just slowly whale away on the ear with its crushing tones, but it really takes someone who likes dark, indecipherable music to get into it.

Other tracks like "120 Days" pick up the pace a bit more along with "Roving Blade" so it feels more like extremely old school death metal, but on the downside the music is going faster so the distortion levels are higher and everything is buried save for the vocals. The drumming (aside from the cymbals) are almost impossible to hear behind the wall of sound from the guitars, so it is very likely that fans might skip tracks like these just because there isn't that much to enjoy in them. If Ilsa had included a few more quiet moments so the drums could get in a few beats edgewise or gone for some single string guitar work to add a bit of melody rather than just chugging chords which sound more like they came from a jam session, or someone testing out a new chord, rather than clever musical structure. The only real thing that is clever about 'Tutti...' is the last bit of "Roving Blade" which includes a creepy music box sample at the end. This dark moment makes up for all the churning blasphemy that has just taken place. As said before, this is most likely only going to appeal to those who like crustcore death metal or extremely noise focused music.

  1. Blood Rituals
  2. 120 Days
  3. Butcher's Castle
  4. Frostthrower
  5. Blue Moon Haze
  6. Primrose Path
  7. Traphouse
  8. No Man's Land
  9. Roving Blade