Warthur After hearing their oltreLuna, which is surely a 2017 album of the year candidate if there ever was one, I wanted to go back to hear Progenie Terrestre Pura's debut album, UMA. This boasts a different lineup to the followup; whereas that was recorded by a trio, this consists of instrumentalist Eon[0] (who'd drop the nickname and be plain old Davide Colladon for the next album) and vocalist Nex[1], who would leave the project after the Asteroidi EP.

What is presented here is a solid first step on the road to the blend of psybient electronic music and atmospheric black metal that made oltreLuna so brilliant. At points the rough edges between the genres are still evident, but otherwise it's an intriguing genre mashup which manages the trick of integrating atmospheric black metal's occasional fascination with ambient music with the furious power of it, rather than keeping ambient and metal tracks separate as is so often the case in the subgenre.

Warthur Progenie Terrestre Pura are probably secretly aliens. Sure, they claim to come from Italy, but they give the game away with this album. See, Earth people typically wouldn't consider psybient and other electronic/ambient genres to be a natural fit with black metal - even in the world of atmospheric black metal, which has been known to dabble in the synthesiser from time to time - and they certainly would have picked up on the fact that if every member of your band has a role in working the synthesisers and/or drum machines your metal credentials are going to be questioned by purists.

And yet here they come with this bizarre industrial-black-ambient head trip to the outer reaches of the galaxy, taking the listener through a calvacade of different moods ranging well beyond the usual cold misanthropy of black metal, and they expect us to believe they're just ordinary human beings like the rest of us? Come off it, Progenie Terrestre Pura: just 'fess up and give us the secrets to faster than light travel so we can go visit your home planet and learn where you learned to play like this.

adg211288 A few years ago I received a promo for the debut album of a relatively new Italian band who at that point only had a single prior demo to their name. I hadn't heard of them before, but that first album, while it wasn't an immediate thing, has in the years that followed gone on to become one of my most highly regarded black metal albums, especially within the category of debut albums. The band was Progenie Terrestre Pura and the debut album was U.M.A. (2013). It was on the strength of this release that as soon as I knew the second album oltreLuna (2017) was finally on the way, inspired me to pre-order myself a physical copy without having heard a single note of it.

Much has actually changed in the Progenie Terrestre Pura camp in the intervening years. Originally a rather enigmatic duo consisting of Eon[0] and Nex[1], they next released the EP Asteroidi (2014), which intentionally abandoned their core black metal sound in favour of pure ambient/electronic work. That was the last they were heard from until the build up to the release of oltreLuna, where we now find that Nex[1] is out of the picture and that Eon[0] is now using his real name Davide Colladon to perform with the group, who have extended themselves to a trio. Emanuele Prandoni is the new vocalist while Fabrizio Sanna has joined on bass. There is still no drummer, so those are programmed primarily by Colladon, with some assistance from Prandoni. The lack of a real drummer may be seen as a detriment by some (especially considering Prandoni actually does drum for groups such as Grind Zero, Simulacro and Vultur), but it does actually make a kind of sense for such an electronically influenced group as Progenie Terrestre Pura, so I'd recommend potential listeners look past this.

Despite the changes in line-up and the direction of their previous release, oltreLuna marks a return to the atmospheric black metal based sound of the debut album U.M.A. There are some similarities between the two records, but a lot more differences. Where U.M.A. was a rather relaxed sounding record with plenty of ambience, oltreLuna is marked for it's heavier and more direct approach. This is also true of the vocals as much as the music, with Emanuele Prandoni bringing a much more forceful performance to the group compared to that of Nex[1], whose style was quite understated, becoming a part of the atmosphere of the U.M.A. album. That's still true to an extent with Emanuele Prandoni's performance, but if you've heard the previous album it will be impossible not to notice the difference as soon as the vocals start on oltreLuna's opening track [.Pianeta.Zero.].

The differences between the two albums don't end there of course. I consider U.M.A. to be a rather unique entry in the directory of atmospheric black metal albums, but the band have built upon what it started rather than rehashed it, so I'd say the same is true of oltreLuna. Familiar elements such as progressive tendencies and psybient influences can easily be heard, but there's new stuff too. For a band who put across such a spacey vibe in both their music and artwork it's quite surprising how tribal and ethnic some of oltreLuna sounds, especially in the percussion in the first and middle tracks [.Pianeta.Zero.] and [.oltreLuna.], the latter of which also features a burst of dubstep that even with the abundant influences of electronic music seems to come out of nowhere. I wouldn't normally touch the dubstep genre with a bargepole, but I have to admit, that part of the song is especially great. It's used again, in a less direct manner, during the final song [.Proxima:B.].

Five tracks in total with each composition being longer than the previous, oltreLuna seems to be an album designed to outdo itself with each track it serves up. Even bring the massive fan of U.M.A. that I am I was floored by the album as early as [.Pianeta.Zero.], which in my mind means that oltreLuna is a much more immediate album than U.M.A. which required a few years to earn the regard I now have for it. That regard remains high and nothing could change that now, but there's absolutely no way I can't say that the band haven't bettered the album in every possible way with oltreLuna. It all builds up to [.Proxima:B.], a track that at 15:19 minutes long is the band's longest track to date and easily their crowning achievement so far as well. Move over Fen, there's a new trio of atmospheric black metal kings holding the crown for the best atmospheric black metal album of 2017 now.

Nightfly MMA Reviewer's Challenge: Album selected by 666sharon666.

Released in 2013 U.M.A. is the debut and so far only album from Italian post black metal duo Progenie Terrestre Pura. Duo’s seem more common in black metal and I sometimes wonder how these bands can pull it off in a live setting. However, it’s of little consequence here as it’s all about the album.

Only five tracks in total though all are pretty long from thirteen down to seven minutes. This is black metal of the atmospheric variety with a strong spacey feel. Progenie Terrestre Pura aren’t in a hurry and prefer a slow burn approach. Opener, named after the band gives us over three minutes of trippy cosmic ambience before anything resembling black metal kicks in. You could be forgiven for thinking you were listening to a Tangerine Dream album to this point. When the metal does kick in its initially fairly generic black metal with blast beats flailing away, tremolo picked guitars and typical rasping vocals. No bad thing in itself but my ears picked up more when the pace slowed somewhat with heavier riffing augmented by the spacey synth lines adding some haunting melody to the proceedings. At thirteen minutes Sovrarobotizzazione is the longest of the lot and follows a similar approach. Whilst it sometimes feels like the parts are randomly thrown together as if you could mix and match in any order you like the number of changes does help maintain interest and some of the quieter sections in particular become quite captivating at times with some well-placed clean guitar parts.

The instrumental sections generally take precedence over the vocals. In fact La Terra Rossa Di Marte has none and is seven minutes of ambience overlaid with spacey synth lines and tasteful guitar picking. Whether this has a place on a black metal album is debateable and likely to alienate fans of the purer variety but then it is a genre that covers many bases and not generally afraid to experiment so why not. I’d have preferred real drums over what almost certainly sounds like programmed but I guess in the context of the songs they add to the futuristic feel of the album. Droni is one of the best song on the album. Whilst is doesn’t deviate from the general formula of the first two tracks it seems to gel and flow better and packing more punch too. Whilst prog elements are a feature of the album as a whole they’re most apparent in Sinapsi Divelte and also features some cleaner vocal work and instrumental sections less typical of black metal at times.

Overall despite one or two moments where I was shouting get on with it! I enjoyed U.M.A. quite a lot. Certainly enough to keep an eye open for future releases. Not your typical black metal by any stretch and probably will go over the heads of many fans of the genre but more prog orientated metal fans could find much to enjoy here.

adg211288 U.M.A. is the debut full-length album by Italian black metal act Progenie Terrestre Pura. It was released in 2013, funnily enough exactly two years to the day since their prior demo release, the simply titled Promo 2011, came out. Both the tracks from the demo reappear on U.M.A. bookending the album. Progenie Terrestre Pura consists of just two members, the enigmatically named Eon[0] (music) and Nex[1] (vocals). U.M.A. stands for Uomini, Macchine, Anime. It means Men, Machines, Souls, in case you were wondering.

The music on U.M.A. is primarily atmospheric black metal, but there are also progressive metal elements to be found. Outside of the metal spectrum the band also draws on psychedelic ambient (psybient) and space ambient music. Black metal bands have long proven that such ambient forms of music work well when they play atmospheric black metal, with Burzum being, I think, the most well known example, and it’s no different for Progenie Terrestre Pura, who on U.M.A. provide an excellent mix of the styles, including the fully ambient track La Terra Rossa Di Marte in the middle of the five track album. That’s right, just five tracks, but over fifty minutes of music, so expect some really sprawling compositions here including the thirteen minute dead and album highlight Sovrarobotizzazione.

The vocal delivery from Nex[1] comes across as being very much integrated into the overall atmosphere that Progenie Terrestre Pura create. His growl is not really typical of black metal in that he has a whisper like quality, or sounds as if he’s some distance away from the music, if you get my drift. Perhaps a better description would be is that most in music you can put the vocals on a different layer to the instruments, and that layer is the one above the music so what when the vocalist is delivering lines, they’re the centre of attention. The music is behind them in the mix. It’s different on U.M.A., as if Nex[1] is on a layer below the music. Or perhaps on the same one, it’s more important to this description to make clear where his vocals aren’t in the mix rather than where they actually are. It’s an approach that is played to great effect on the album in any case, whether you understand my attempts to describe what it sounds like or not, which as you may have gathered I’m finding quite difficult. There are also some clean vocals used during Sovrarobotizzazione and Sinapsi Divelte, which retain the same effect.

On U.M.A. Progenie Terrestre Pura have crafted something really special in my opinion. Not only is their take on atmospheric/ambient black metal more unique than most, not to mention a refreshing change from the current run of post-rock infused blackgaze acts, but it’s also a mighty fine slab of black metal which at year’s end looks set to be included among the best black metal releases of the year. U.M.A. is atmospheric black metal with true emphasis on the atmospheric part. An exceptional grade rating is deserved.

94/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/progenie-terrestre-pura-u-m-a-t2985.html)