The Clearing Path - Watershed between earth and firmament CD Digipack

The Clearing Path - Watershed between earth and firmament CD Digipack(Avantgarde Music) The Clearing Path is a solo black metal project headed by Gabriele Gramaglia who lives in Milan in northern Italy and draws inspiration from the wild landscapes of the nearby Italian Alps. The project combines black metal, hardcore and post-metal and these influences can be heard on the project's debut album "The Watershed between Earth and Firmament", a homage to the mountains and the waterfalls in the area that has inspired Gramaglia and where he finds spiritual solace. The album should be heard in its entirety for the full appreciation of its tremendous power and energy though it's made up of six tracks with titles alluding to the mysterious, almost transcendental spiritual power of nature and of water in its various manifestations (as waterfall, river or still lake) in particular. For what is basically a bedroom project, Gramaglia handles all the instrumentation well (the drumming, a mix of synth and natural, is especially powerful) and his production skills are good too. The guitars have a dark sparkly, jangly quality a little reminiscent of Deathspell Omega and I think this album would appeal to DSO fans not only for its sound but also for its high technical level and polish and the jazzy quality of much of the music.