Artic Plateau is not a Black Metal act, although it has one point in common. Indeed, this Italian band is actually the work of one artist, Gianluca Divirgilio.
On A Sad Sunny Day is the band's debut, and already, it demonstrates maturity in songwriting and crafty musicianship. Gianluca is at ease playing guitars, bass, drums keyboards and samplings, but I believe his main instrument is the guitar. This last instrument is everywhere, leading the musical structure. The guitar work is melodic and filled with harmonious arpeggios and leads, as well as tremolo pickings. The later brining in intensity at times, but the composer is well able to increase the heaviness with distorted parts and a bit of harsh vocals too. Most of the time, the guitar is used to carry a melodic and dreamy atmosphere, with a certain touch of melancholy. The vocals remain discrete, not too upfront, which is a wise decision, since they are the only weakness on this disc. When a lower tonality is used or with effects or the raspy version, the result is much better. The track listing includes five instrumentals, "Lepanto", "In Epica Memories", "Iceberg Shoegaze", "Eight Years Old" and "Aurora in Rome". They all figure on my "favorite" list. Some passages are leaning towards progressive music such as: "Amethyst to #F " and "Coldream". Even if the closing track is clocking in at 21 minutes, we have to cut down the useless, and somewhat annoying, 13 minutes silence starting around 5:30 into the song.
On a Sad Sunny Day remains a pleasant piece of dreamy / melancholic music, and a great debut for multi-instrumentalist Gianluca Divirgilio.
Track listing:
1 - Alive
2 - On a Sad Sunny Day
3 - Lepanto
4 - Ivory
5 - In Epica Memories
6 - Amethyst to # F
7 - Iceberg Shoegaze
8 - Coldream
9 - Eight Years Old
10 - Aurora in Rome
11 - In Time
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