“Blow your trumpets, Gabriel!” (Adam Darski on The Satanist, 2014)
Conceptually there has always been a closeness between Metal and Brass, at least as utilized in orchestral and military music. The overwhelming immediacy, the dark bombast, the association with war, battle, glory, bravery, yet also death, sorrow, funeral marches… As cheesy as some of these clichès sometimes get in Metal, there undoubtly is a lot of common ground. The actual usage of trumpet, trombone and the like in the music however is still a relatively rare occasion. Of course there’s a wide range of Metal with symphonic elements, and every fan will find - probably multiple - examples of guest musician credits or even the odd trumpeteer joining the band on stage for selected special shows, like it sometimes happens with Imperial Triumphant. But statistically these instances are still rare - and having wind instrument players as permanent band members has never even remotely picked up as movement.
And in a way the Italians Ottone Pesante aren’t really a textbook example of an exception from the rule either. Because while Paolo Raineri plays trumpet and flugelhorn and composer Francesco Bucci plays trombone and tuba, they actually don’t stick to the sounds you would usually expect from those instruments any more, but - aided by the heavy use of distortion and effect pedal boards - also completely take over the roles of guitar and bass. It feels like something is different, but it could take you a while to figure ou what it is. So ultimately the brass is not a bonus, not an addition here, but actually the whole thing! Except of course for the as bestial as crucial killer drumming of Beppe Mondini.
All this isn’t breaking news. Ottone Pesante have been around for a while now, and I’ve already pointed out clearly that the lack of guitars possibly wouldn’t even occur to you on first listen, when I saved the “reveal” for the latter half of my review for their 2022 EP …When The Black Bells Rang.
On Scrolls of War however the trio does another quantum leap forward, away from any possible assumption that they might just be a gimmick turned into a band. No, this album doesn’t need special treatment; it easily holds up among the finest Metal releases of the year. So don’t think I quoted the song title of Behemoth’s The Satanist opening track just because it has the word “trumpet” in it! No, I actually hear resemblances in the furor, scale, depth, creativity and overall expression of both albums. The sense of conviction and purposefulness is quite similar - even though the sound is different and they don’t even match regarding their genres.
There are some overlaps though, as Ottone Pesante for sure took inspiration from Death Metal, Black Metal and Blackened Thrash. On the other hand they also lower it down to Doom and Drone, have epic Post-Rock crescendos and the immediately obvious Brass moments, which are either of mighty Neoclassical nature or a hint towards Jazzcore, which was more present on earlier albums. Further variety is provided by both brass players adding harsh vocals on one track respectively and a spectacular primordial guest performance by the one and only Lili Refrain on “Battle of Qadesh”. The only instrumental guest appearance comes from Napalm Death’s Shane Embury, but not in his role as bass player, but providing dark synths like on his Electronic Ambient project Dark Sky Burial.
While albums like Brassphemy Set In Stone (2016) or Apocalips (2018), which I also fully recommend, used every possible wordplay to underscore the band’s special selling point, Scrolls of War sees Ottone Pesante getting more serious. Based on history, mythology and archeology it explores the constant relationship of brass instruments and war - with the intention of excorcising it, leading to the demand “Let trumpets play only for Music!”
From the “Late Bronze Age Collapse” and watching “Men Kill, Children Die” to the “Slaughter of the Slains” this concept impressively proves that it works. Only its ambition might be too much for just one album of normal length. And for exactly that reason this actually is only the first part of a proposed trilogy! From the group’s practice of naming each new album after the last track of the previous release we can already guess it will be called Seven. Other than that it only needs to come out in the hopefully not too far future and be at least half as good as Scrolls of War is now. Until then I will probably spin Scrolls of War more often than most other Metal records of 2024.
