User:Der Blutsauger/Mediterranean scene

The Mediterranean scene is a musical collective created in Sciacca, Sicily, in the early 1990s by Michele "Agghiastru" Venezia. The collective's goal is to experiment with the fusion of extreme metal and Mediterranean folk influences. Since then they formed several bands, a dedicated label (INCH Productions, distributed worldwide by Audioglobe ) and they built a musical studio (CASTIU Studios). Since 2008 some of their EPs are also co-published by Taurina Rec., the label of Fabrizio Salina, another member of the scene.

The Scene
The Mediterranean scene is formed by eight projects: Inchiuvatu, Astimi, Inquietu, La Caruta di li Dei, Lamentu, Lava, Sartanah, Ultima Missa and Visina.

It comprises also some soloist project by its members: Agghiastru, Maleficu Santificatu, 3 - Rosario Badalamenti, Addraunara.

Two more projects (Vasamatri and Il Vitello d'Oro) were announced in the first months of 2011 without any other information. Bujo Celeste, another new project, was first mentioned in an interview in April 2012. Another new project, Tabula Rasa, appeared on the official INCH Productions website in 2013.

Almost all lyrics are in Italian or in the Sicilian dialect.

The scene since its foundation got coverage on Italian metal magazines, such as Flash, Grind Zone and Psycho.

Agghiastru, with other members of the scene, toured Italy extensively, playing in important festivals like Agglutination and opening for acts like Afterhours and Luca Madonia.

Relationship between the Mediterranean scene and other bands
In an interview with the Italian magazine Flash in 2002, the guitarist of Lamentu, LiotruM, talked about the relationships between Agghiastru and other major metal bands in the first years of the "Scene" and the common musical ideas shared by early Moonspell, Inchiuvatu and Nightfall, reaffirming, at the same time, the uniqueness of his own band.

"Agghiastru talked with Fernando of Moonspell (Wolfheart-era) about this stage of "Mediterranean Metal" that was quite a lot interesting, that had as main character also Nightfall from Greece and other big names..."

- LiotruM

In an interview for Grind Zone in 2007, Fernando Ribeiro of Moonspell talked about what he called the "Mediterranean black metal" and reaffirmed the role of Moonspell as the forerunner of this new direction in black metal.

"Moonspell were the authors of Mediterranean Black Metal, as it's called now."

- Fernando Ribeiro

Inchiuvatu
Inchiuvatu (In Sicilian "Nailed") are the most important band of the scene.

Astimi
Astimi (In Sicilian "Curses" or "Imprecations") are a death metal band strongly influenced by Deicide and Morbid Angel. They started as a classical black metal band with Opus I & II. Since Hammurabi their sound has some Mesopotamian folk influences. They also played some songs in the Inchiuvatu album Viogna (2000).

Releases

 * Opus I (EP, 1996)
 * Opus II (EP, 1997)
 * Opus I&2 (Compilation, 1999)
 * Demo (Demo, 1999)
 * TrinaCapronuM (Album, 2001)
 * Hammurabi (EP, 2005)

Inquietu
Inquietu (In Sicilian "Not quiet") play classic black metal, influenced by psychedelia.

Releases

 * South's Torment (EP, 2001)
 * Restless God (EP, 2002)
 * Angelic Fall (EP, 2004)

La Caruta di li Dei
La Caruta di li Dei (In Sicilian "The Fall of the Gods") are an epic black metal project with prog influences and with lyrics based upon Roman and Greek mythologies. The story of a great warrior named Keleo, which mission is to liberate his conscience from the oppression of the gods, unfolds during the releases of La Caruta, with plenty of epic battles in the Mediterranean sea.

Releases

 * La Caruta di li Dei ["The Fall of the Gods"] (Demo album, 1997)
 * Mediterraneo Atto I ["Mediterranean: Act I"] (Album, 1999)
 * Scilla & Cariddi ["Scylla & Charybdis"] (EP, 2002)
 * La Coscienza ["The Conscience"] (EP, 2005)
 * Era ["Hera"] (EP, 2011)

Lamentu
Lamentu (In Sicilian "Lament") play black metal heavily influenced by the tribal music from Africa, to create an occult, ritualistic music. Their lyrics are about Liack-Aru (an ancient African demon) and his ancient African kingdom.

Releases

 * Erva Tinta + Aggrissu (Double EP, 1998)
 * Liack (Album, 2001)
 * niurAfrica (EP, 2005)
 * taButu (EP, 2011)

Lava
Lava are a trio formed by Agghiastru, Fabrizio Salina and Rosario Badalamenti. Rooted in some experimental projects of the early nineties, Lava play drone doom.

Releases

 * Incandescenza ["Incandescence"] (EP, 2011)
 * Crateri ["Craters"] (EP, 2013)

Sartanah
Sartanah are a project inspired by Spaghetti western soundtracks of the seventies expecially from musician like Ennio Morricone, Piero Umiliani and Piero Piccioni. The name recalls a famous spaghetti western character usually played by Gianni Garko, Sartana.

Releases

 * R.I.P. (Ep, 2013)

Ultima Missa
Ultima Missa (In Sicilian "The last mass") are a project mixing seventies prog rock with modern doom metal. Among their influences there are Death SS and Il Balletto di Bronzo. They record only in places strongly connected with evil forces, like graveyards, catacombs and deconsacrated churches.

Releases

 * L'Abbandono della Gioia ["To give up the joy"] (EP, 2006)
 * In Assenza di Luce ["Without light"] (EP, 2008)
 * L'Elaborazione del Lutto ["The Grief Process"] (EP, 2013)

Visina
Visina (Name of a mythological Mediterranean snake) are a project mixing eighties gothic rock and EBM with modern black metal.

Releases

 * Ixia Vilenu (EP, 2001 - Recorded between 1995 and 1997)
 * Ixia Zunt (EP, 2004)
 * Ixia III (EP, 2013)

Agghiastru
Agghiastru (In Sicilian "Wild olive") are the solo project by Michele "Agghiastru" Venezia. In his first album he plays piano rock, while in the second he shifted genre to alternative rock in the veins of singer-songwriters like Nick Cave.

Releases

 * Incantu ["Enchantment"] (Album, 2007)
 * Straviari (EP, 2007)
 * Agghionna ["Sunrise"] (EP, 2008)
 * Disincantu ["Disenchantment"] (Album, 2008)

Maleficu Santificatu
Maleficu Santificatu (In Sicilian "Evil santified") are one of the two soloist project by Rosario Badalamenti. He plays raw black metal. Sometimes his production is compared to early Immortal.

Releases

 * Il Male ["Evil"] (EP, 2004)
 * Il Dolore ["Pain"] (EP, 2005)
 * L'Odio ["Hate"] (EP, 2005)
 * La Pietà ["Piety"] (EP, 2006)
 * Il Rancore ["Grudge"] (EP, 2011)

3 - Rosario Badalamenti
3 (Like the divine perfect number) are the other soloist project by Rosario Badalamenti. He plays industrial black metal/splittercore.

Releases

 * Antichristian Kaos (EP, 2001)
 * 666 Knives to the Son's Heart (EP, 2003)
 * Onnipotenza III ["Almightiness III"] (EP, 2005)
 * Santu Rusariu ["Rosario the Saint"] (EP, 2008)
 * Il Braccio Sinistro ["The Left Arm"] (EP, 2011)
 * Synthetic Satanic KAOS (EP, 2013)

Addraunara
Addraunara (name of a mythological Mediterranean storm) is the soloist project of Nadur. He plays symphonic black metal.

Releases

 * Addraunara (EP, 2000)
 * Izael (EP, 2002)
 * Næl (EP, 2013)

INCH Productions
INCH Productions is the official record label of the Mediterranean scene. It produces and distributes all the EP of the scene, and produces all the official albums (distributed by Audioglobe).