After giving previous Lahmia releases very respectable grades, it was not unexpected to receive similar quality from these Italians. In short, Resilience pretty much stays the Gothenburg scene course charted by Forget Every Sunrise and Into the Abyss. Whatever mood possessed Lahmia songwriters, however, during Resilience creation, it was probably more pensive than before as Resilience leaves gloomier and more disconsolate taste. The whole effort seems to be tuned lower, and made more ominous and rawer through musical production. The music on Elegy of a Dying Sun, Her Frantic Call, Divide et Impera is still speedy and energetic, with hammering rhythmic tightness (Divide et Impera), but the wall of sound Lahmia now built is fuzzier, less contoured, more enveloping, and definitely very bristly and coarse. Even the acoustic middle of the song breakdown in Elegy of a Dying Sun does not sound positive. Above all this shadowy chaos the melodies continue to swirl (Her Frantic Call), tremolos descend downward, and at times the harmonies (Divide et Impera) or solos (Her Frantic Call) really shine through.

Francesco Amerise wasn’t ever Michael Stanne, in terms of singing and enunciation, and on Resilience his vocals are even more low timbre barks and howls. At times (Divide et Impera) his chesty growls really scrape the bottom, so any elevation after that can be construed as soaring.

After the first three tracks opening salvo, The Frayed Lines of Time pulls back both speed and intensity, and sadly, for me, the album never fully regains its mojo. Limitless gets some of it back, but Void of Humiliation runs together quite a bit, and I only know of Insomnium on In the Halls of Awaiting being able to pull out >10 min melodic death song, and it has to rely on the folk angle melodies to do so. The Age of Treason is sure monumental in its approach, has an inviting instrumental intro and off-beat energetic middle, but in the hands of Lahmia something that long just sounds more convoluted and not focused as opposed to their shorter to the point opening tracks. Existential Vastness closes the album, and it is back to the sorrowful, subdued and pensive atmosphere pervasive on Resilience.

Lose the middle of the album, and the mark goes up. That seems to be the pattern I have established while listening to Lahmia. I am quite fond of some tracks, but listening to their albums end-to-end just hasn’t clicked for me. Not yet anyway.