CIMINERO is a band based in Finland but the Mediterranean flavor is evident through out the world they weave in their work. Their name sounded weird at first until I heard that it’s a synthesis of two italian words, cimitero and nero, which is cemetery and black so this along with the dark tones of the album cover put you directly in the proper mood they want to create and all this before even the music kicks off.
“Shadows Digging The Grave” is their second album after “Subterranean Awakening” in 2019. It contains nine compositions where they offer a mix of doom metal and occult rock and the first thing I noticed is the tempo varies which gives the necessary variety. It seems that this time they worked even harder to create good memorable songs and along with the warm production it sounds better than their debut. Some mid tempo compositions carry a pleasant groovy feeling and most probably they will be great live on stage so it is not by chance the opener track is the groovy “Invoke Me” but also later in the album they don’t hesitate to speed up in tracks like “The Leaper”. But if you ask me where they really nail it is when they go “slow and low” and yes, it is with tracks like “Torment” and “Deep Red Forest” where they really makes me love them totally. The same feeling I get with the beautiful single “Nettare d’Estasi” where the italian language gives some extra points of exoticism.
Talking about the lyrics Ciminero are into the usual occult clichés (that we love so much anyway) focusing on the inner darkness, destiny, magic references, ritualistic ceremonies and symbolisms like Tarot cards with Valentina Vigato using her vocals to tell the mystical stories. But apart from all that if you see beyond the symbolisms in the lyrics the main theme is the human psyche. For example on “Torment” they talk about oppression and the misery that comes from it, how hard it gets to grow up in a cultural reality that doesn’t really represent you, especially when you know who you are and you get oppressed by judgement, hierarchical cults etc
But have this in mind, all the above come with the appropriate music soundtrack since Jukka Aravirta weaves some nice guitar riffs and especially when they add some psychedelic-like essence the final result is really great. So, yes, I can not think of any better album as we start getting into the winter period, even here on the sunny Mediterranean side of the world…
