{"id":670245,"date":"2026-03-20T23:53:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T23:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/670245\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T23:53:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T23:53:17","slug":"calvana-sub-janus-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/670245\/","title":{"rendered":"Calvana – Sub Janus Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Picture \u201cblack metal.\u201d What do you see? Frigid wastelands illuminated by burning churches? Damp crypts beneath gothic cathedrals? Varg\u2019s stupid backyard vlogs? One band would have you consider the picturesque slopes of Tuscany\u2019s sunbathed Calvana mountain region. The anonymous duo of Italy\u2019s Calvana<\/strong> have raised hell in the name of their treasured namesake mountains for over a decade and across two records, delivering belligerent blackened arts they describe as \u201ctrend-free,\u201d \u201crough and robust,\u201d and \u201cnever recalling anything remotely modern nor much else from the darkest past.\u201d Their latest opus, Sub Janus, aims to continue this mission of esoteric aggression and deepest darkness, sounding older than even the oldest black metals do. Can Calvana <\/strong>bring defiant pride to their mountains, or should Sub Janus be left in the present-past?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t buy the claim that Calvana <\/strong>are especially enigmatic in sound, but Sub Janus sounds distinct regardless. Evoking Celtic Frost <\/strong>darkness, serrating it with Venom <\/strong>rawness and supercharging it with Immortal <\/strong>aggression, Calvana <\/strong>play simple compositions brought to life by deep atmospheres and overwhelming force. Torrents of classic black metal tremolo blasts are a staple of Sub Janus, and songs like \u201cMy Prayer to Diana\u201d and \u201cMeine S\u00fc\u00dfe Sternenkriegerin\u201d rage with a take-no-prisoners attitude that showcases this mode of Calvana <\/strong>at their best. When not frothing over maddening speed, Calvana <\/strong>are practitioners of the slow and menacing, evident on the solemn death march of \u201cSummer Storm\u201d or the sinister, bowed string intro of \u201cCarnivore.\u201d Vocally, Calvana<\/strong>\u2019s frontperson sounds like an old Universal monster, groaning and snarling slurred and theatrically all over Sub Janus, and accompanied by searing guitars and bottom-heavy bass Calvana <\/strong>sit in a niche thoroughly theirs while still playing within the tropes of the sub-genre.<\/p>\n

\ufeffSub Janus by Calvana<\/a><\/p>\n

Calvana <\/strong>draw from a refined selection of tricks for Sub Janus, lending the album both focus and, unfortunately, a feeling of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu. Most songs move between two modes: starting slow and ending fast or starting fast and ending slow. Both \u201cTwilight Song\u201d and \u201cDeath of Pan\u201d open with brief fanfare before bringing the hurt, folding arpeggios over cascading blast beats and walls of guitar before shifting halfway to a halftime pace. This approach is most effective on \u201cFear Makes You Tame,\u201d where the slow turn sees most of the band drop out entirely while doomy strums and haunting tremolos ring out amidst a discord of tortured wails and screams. It\u2019s silly, campy, but fun. Calvana<\/strong>\u2019s approach of slow-to-fast works usually better, however, as \u201cSummer Storm\u201d and album-highlight \u201cSorry\u201d build tension through subtle progression and eccentric rhythms that make their rise to full-speed riffage all the more cacophonous. This small playbook makes Sub Janus a repetitive affair. Songs with especially little going on, like \u201cMeine S\u00fc\u00dfe Sternenkriegerin,\u201d \u201cTwilight Song,\u201d and the closer \u201cSub Janus,\u201d feel substantially longer than their runtimes suggest. Calvana <\/strong>have something working with Sub Janus, but I wish that it had a little more going for that something.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But if Sub Janus is hampered by songwriting woes, then Calvana<\/strong> saved it with lively production and performances. Calvana<\/strong>\u2019s analog production and emphasis on giving the full band a spotlight lends Sub Janus an earthy, full-bodied sound defined by enormity and dynamism. Everything feels just right in the mix, especially the bass guitar, which sounds burly and substantial. Black metal demands furious showmanship and Calvana <\/strong>deliver mightily, spitting hellfire on \u201cFear Makes You Tame\u201d and lathering \u201cCarnivore\u201d in horror-film dread. This is especially true of the drummer, who plays out of their damn gourd on Sub Janus, pummeling lightning-fast fills on \u201cDeath of Pan,\u201d exacting punishment upon their hated crash cymbals on \u201cMy Prayer to Diana\u201d and thumping out one gnarly drum groove on \u201cSorry.\u201d All of this, more than anything on Sub Janus, makes Calvana <\/strong>seem as ancient as they aimed to feel. Sub Janus feels like a relic lost to time, dug from the Earth, bearing an archaic dread and untamed vitriol still vital today.<\/p>\n

Tuscany is a beautiful place, but Calvana <\/strong>would have you believe the sun never once shone there on Sub Janus. Its songwriting issues limit the replay value of Sub Janus, and my feelings toward the album have dimmed somewhat over the weeks, but the fire Calvana <\/strong>brought to it definitely makes me want to keep this band on my radar. A fun, dark, and decently paced romp, Sub Janus is worth the time of black metal fans who prefer their tunes musty and damp. Visit sunny blackened Calvana <\/strong>today!<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: Good
DR<\/strong>: 8 | Format<\/strong>: 320 kbps MP3
Label<\/strong>: Adirondack Black Mass<\/a>
Websites<\/strong>: calvana.bandcamp.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/calvana<\/a>
Release Date<\/strong>: March 20th, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Picture \u201cblack metal.\u201d What do you see? Frigid wastelands illuminated by burning churches? Damp crypts beneath gothic cathedrals?…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":670246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[29],"tags":[12086,55679,282970,23635,282971,282972,171,282973,23652,270528,975,2290,11853,282974,67,132,68,122815],"class_list":["post-670245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-12086","tag-3-0","tag-adirondack-black-mass","tag-black-metal","tag-calvana","tag-celtic-frost","tag-entertainment","tag-immortal","tag-italian-metal","tag-mar26","tag-music","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-sub-janus","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-venom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116264200428965900","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}