EN DECLIN - Trama

Active since 1996, Rome's En Declin arrive at their debut with a record steeped in melancholy and decadence, somewhere between Jeff Buckley and Opeth. Released thanks to the strong backing of Italy's My Kingdom Music, "Trama" is a rather unremarkable record, hampered above all by a underlying monochrome quality that manages to dull even its very few genuinely interesting moments. Sure, the band was probably aiming for a sense of sonic cohesion, but the feeling that, with just a little scratching beneath that smooth surface, something more could have been achieved is really quite strong.

The intro, entrusted to a hazy watercolor from which synth-etic spaces open up, sets off the acoustic grace of "Until Bleeding", cast in backlight toward melodic delicacy. Metallically lyrical and deeply visceral constructions like "1647" are woven with threads that knot together and unravel into iridescent kaleidoscopes. Enveloping and dreamlike enough to make someone cry miracle ("My Anger"), En Declin do at least bring a good dose of sincere devotion to sounds that will hardly seem unfamiliar to many who stumble across their songs. And while in "Still Anger" this dilation carries on undeterred, further exposing the thinness of the ideas at play, "…Turns Blade" gives off the usual, by now tiresome autumnal flavors.

The electric jabs, the almost psychedelic maelstrom and the drowsy stretches that hint at a hidden, almost "progressive" sense make "When Edge…" far more interesting, by contrast. A touch embarrassing (not least for its vocals split between English and Italian) is the electro-acoustic ballad "IsQuoSadMove", with an enjoyably dreamy descriptive touch filling out its instrumental tail. If "Lost…" adds little or nothing to the set, the contemplative "…In The Trama" offers a sorrowful fresco, stirred by lysergic jolts.

The acoustic-electric dialectic underpinning the scaffolding of "A Passage…" is, in the end, the perfect crib-notes version of a formula stretched incredibly thin. They call it "Ethereal Morphosis Music". But however seductive that name might sound, it's not enough to disguise a frankly pointless record.

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30/04/2026