Trelkovsky call themselves a relatively new band from the foggy lands of northern Italy, a place they describe as “the most inhospitable region in Europe: la bassa emiliana. Overcrowded, polluted, humid, freezing in winter and unbearably hot in summer. Always foggy, endlessly flat, with no landscape in sight.” Growing up there, they explain, “teaches you to find beauty in the strangest and most unexpected places.”
The band started a couple of years ago as a duo, with Francesco on vocals and guitar and Nicolò on drums, “rising from the ashes of a band that no one remembers.” That earlier attempt was called La Voragine — in their words, “in many ways a proto-Trelkovsky. The elements were there, but for some reason it never felt right. Then came the pandemic, hiatus, and eventually a split. For a while, we didn’t play at all. Honestly, I thought I was done with music.”
Everything shifted one night when they saw Jeromes Dream live. “The impact was so powerful that as soon as the last note ended, we looked at each other and knew we weren’t finished.” Soon after, a friend gave them a small rehearsal space “in the middle of nowhere. With air conditioning and endless nights ahead, we were unstoppable. Three months later, we had written all the songs that became ‘Le stesse cose ritornano’.”
That summer they connected with local collectives Warmroom and Non Mi Piace, who helped them book their first shows. At one of these gigs they met Fulvio, who joined on bass. He also plays guitar in Konoha, and his presence, as the band puts it, “fit perfectly into our vision and energy.” When it came time to record, they turned to their friend Federico Ascari, “a skilled producer and sound engineer, who helped us shape and refine our ideas into the album you hear now.”
Released on September 5th, “Le stesse cose ritornano” blends what the band call “a heavily black/post-black metal influenced screamo” with themes drawn from literature, philosophy, and personal experience. They cite inspirations ranging from Deafheaven and Bosse-de-nage to Orchid and La Quiete.
The record, in their words, “channels a form of screamo existentialism, through blending violent riffing, melodic arpeggios, and atmospheric blasts. It is at once an homage to the two genres that shaped us the most – screamo and black metal – and an attempt to entwine them in a way that feels fresh and personal. We believe there is still much ground to explore in the dialogue between these extremes.”
The themes across the album revolve around “life under capitalism, the loss of identity, paranoia, pain and how we try to avoid it.” For the band, the act of playing itself is inseparable from those ideas: “Nothing resonates more than screaming our discomfort with life and the world while blast-beating over a riff that is both raw and strangely uplifting.”
As they summed it up themselves: “As I write this, I can’t contain the emotion of reliving this journey – and I’m even more excited for the one ahead.”
