Equisetum released Cor Ex Putredine, their first album, on 25 September through My Kingdom Music, and the Tuscan duo have reduced the whole record to one line: death is not an event, death is a process.
That is a doom band's thesis rather than a slogan. An event can be written about in three minutes. A process needs length, repetition and the patience to stay with something that is not getting better, and the seven songs here are arranged to do exactly that, from the opener Aghram through Il Canto Degli Impiccati and Mente Sepolta to Rymohr.
The label places them in the Italian dark tradition and names Paul Chain's Alkaest as the reference point, with the weight of Celtic Frost, the dissonance of Unholy and the slower gothic end of Type O Negative around it, plus a little Thorns in how the rhythms are put together. Four comparisons is a lot to carry, and the ones that matter are the first and the last.
The division of labour is total. Noctuaria writes and sings the words. Mortifero writes the music, plays every instrument, recorded the drums, bass and guitars, mixed and mastered the result and drew the sleeve. The digipak comes with an eight page booklet.