The Dawn Razor hits with another fierce strike of Paris-forged death metal, this time with the blistering single โChiaroscuro Italiano,โ from their last album, In Sublime Presence. It rolls out like a storm front and hits with the force fans of Dimmu Borgir, Children of Bodom, and Gojira will recognize instantly. The project, founded in 2017 by vocalist and lead guitarist Sylvain Spanu, sets death-and-black-metal brutality against romantic-era sublime aesthetics. After the debut album Renaissances (2018), their 2024 full-length In Sublime Presence, pushes further into the cinematic and the feral, with massive and meticulously crafted songs like โChiaroscuro Italiano.โ
โChiaroscuro Italianoโ explodes with shredding, gritty riffs, the guitars buzzing like live wires over thumping, tight drums. The rhythm section churns with a punishing precision, before the track slides into a more melodic drive, those clean, cutting chords slicing through the density like light breaking across stone. That tension between brutality and beauty is where The Dawn Razor thrives, and here itโs dialed in with almost painterly focus.
When the vocals kick in, Spanuโs voice is all vitriol and gravel, hoarse, raspy, guttural, delivered with a thick, chest-rattling punch. His phrasing lands like incantations torn straight from the underworld, yet thereโs a strange emotional clarity in the aggression. The energy coils tighter as the track barrels forward.
Then comes the guitar solo with its winding, melodic, razor-bright surge that riffs fast and fluid, almost neoclassical in its precision. It reminds you exactly why Spanu cites the sublime movement as an influence, with terror and beauty held in the same breath.
With โChiaroscuro Italiano,โ The Dawn Razor sharpens the projectโs identity. Itโs violent, vivid, and strangely elegant, a powerful new chapter from an artist who treats metal like both a weapon and fine art.
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Review by: Naomi Joan