Una Lama d’Argento is a death metal album through and through, but one that understands that evil matters more than technique. With horror samples and interludes setting the tone, the riffs lurch and grind forward with a sense of menace that runs far deeper than surface-level creepiness.

Tenebro are not interested in the hyper-clean, ultra-precise production that dominates so much modern extreme metal. Instead, this album sounds like it was recorded in a bog, every instrument bleeding into the next with cavernous, growling vocals that are muddy and hostile. Where many death metal records are obsessed with speed or technical spectacle, Una Lama d’Argento prioritises weight and dread with twisted riffs evoking creatures that sound wrong. One track feels like a pursuit, another like an execution, with a clear sense of cinematic logic lifted from horror scores. Impiccata lurches forward with a brutal, swaggering groove whilst Sangue Sui Muri introduces a surf-like tremolo with relentless pace. Songs collapse into suffocating density, commiting to their narrow focus with no moments of respite. The record stays at a constant ten, pummelling forward with a defiant rejection of modern metal’s clarity and cleanliness. The closer Jennifer stands out because it takes its time lurching, dragging and piling on weight, throwing the band’s full arsenal into one final, grinding statement: the slowest and biggest monster finally stepping into view in a culmination of all the violence that came before it. It’s easy for death metal records like this to blur together, but Una Lama d’Argento is uniquely satisfying because of its clarity of purpose. Tenebro aren’t trying to impress you with how clever they are, they’re here to sound as evil as possible and bury you under noise until you’re pulling menacing faces and stomping along. Everything you could want from death metal.