With everyone’s short attention divided evermore by our digital ‘things’, we’re all struggling to remain tethered to a real world that in turn grows more confused, fraught and nonsensical each day. This provides a perfectly relatable story, and one which has been wrapped up duly by Stormo, the brilliant Alpine screamo scene stalwarts looking to reclaim that idea of being present.
Concepts have reigned a lot of the work of vocalist Luca Rocco and his bandmates. The Stormo name is sometimes styled Storm{o}, with the brackets representing the translated name “flock of birds”, and 2023’s propulsive post-harcore thrashing of Endocannibalismo was about an Amazonian death ritual. That’s been followed up here with Tagli/Talee, focused on cuts, and the act of cutting to cultivate renewed spaces ready to blossom from emptiness to something fulfilling. It comes across not just in the concerted endeavour of painstakingly etching the flowers for the album artwork, but the brevity of this excursion feels apt in reducing the fast pace of modern life; of how touring Europe from one purpose-made human space of a tour bus (evoked by titles like Edges or High Walls) influences how one takes in the beautiful outer world flitting past the window—the Sand, the Ice, and the Branches.
As one example, single Kallitype (with its name evocative of a photographic print dashed by an eternal stillness) represents the journey from which it was written: a ferry between Denmark and Norway. For all the track’s bombast, there’s a hopefulness in the upward reaching chord progressions. No doubt, the overwhelming dense fir forests misted with Scandinavian folklore seep through elsewhere with strong black metal touches on Alte Mura, or even the reasonably cheery tremolo runs of Sabbia. Where past records have been more all-out dark screamo rippers, Tagli/Talee feels like a well-curated garden, a sequenced live set morphing with playful dynamics. The initial three-song opening run has the effect of Converge’s seminal First Light/Last Light double header before segueing into Sabbia Pt. 2: Ghiaccio’s threatening electronica, which comes back full circle again on album closer Come Fauce Che Divora.
The free-flowing tracklist feels effectively organic considering its makeup of 11 vignettes per touring location. Even within individual songs you’re given a push and pull, a space to breathe. Despite a thick and fast introduction to Sciame, its midway point achieves an aural effect of stepping back for some perspective making the headfirst dive back into the titular swarm all the more effective. Sabbia slows to feel on the brink of dismantling, and Riva plays with intensity through some outstanding drumwork from Stefano Rutolini. At times there’s outstanding and galloping double bass action (Bordi), while Rami instead restrains its rhythm section to let the rampant guitars screech and splutter, and the echoey vocals disorientate.
Like coursing through life and only occasionally taking stock to value our small joys, Tagli/Talee works as a diverse offering that speeds along highways, grabbing inspiration from both the relentless ‘butter the toast, eat the toast’ life, as well as nature at its most charming and formidable. In today’s age, whether we’re a touring band or not, we all have to balance rolling with the punches and the need to reconnect to the people and place we hold dear—an idea Stormo thoughtfully conveys in merely twenty-five minutes, and with a whole load of lovely noise to boot.
For fans of: Birds In Row, pg. 99, Portrayal Of Guilt
‘Tagli/Talee’ by Stormo is released on 21st March on Prosthetic Records.
Words by Elliot Burr