Marea, the solo project of Matteo Balzarini, delivers a deeply introspective and unique musical experience with its debut album, The Silence of Rust. Blending atmospheric black metal, doom, and shoegaze influences, the album takes listeners on a sonic journey where intensity meets serenity. In this interview, Matteo shares the origins of Marea, his spontaneous creative process, and his quest to find beauty within the darkness.
Serial Metalbums: Matteo, could you tell us a bit about the origins of Marea and your journey as a musician? What inspired you to launch this one-man band project, and what do you aim to convey through Marea’s music?
Matteo: Even though my first album came out this year, I have been playing and composing this kind of music since 2005. The official birth of my project comes from my wish to finally make public some of my many works that I have written over the years. The goal is to try to convey to the listener all those emotions that my music is able to arouse in me.
Serial Metalbums: The Silence of Rust showcases striking contrasts between slow, heavy sections and faster, more intense moments, seamlessly transitioning between atmospheric doom and raw black metal. Can you walk us through your approach to composing these dynamic shifts and the ideas you wanted to capture within this interplay?
Matteo: These dynamic changes of direction come spontaneously and are not a deliberate decision. Once I have composed the first riffs of a song, I try to feel what the song asks me to do and what I think it needs rather than previously decide things like "Here there will be a fast raw black metal part and here an acoustic interlude.
As I was saying, the idea and the purpose of my music is to try to make the listener feel a different amount of emotions during the duration of the album, through all these various styles (depressive, doom, atmospheric, raw, post etc). I have the presumption of seeing my album as a 38-minute long sonic journey in which to experience different states of mind. The ultimate goal is the search for beauty in the midst of all this darkness.
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Serial Metalbums:The album balances melancholic depth and atmospheric black metal with doom’s immersive weight. What were some of the core influences and inspirations behind this soundscape, and how did you work to create such an evocative atmosphere throughout?
Matteo: Listening to extreme metal and not for so many years, my influences come from many different styles and bands, from early 90s black metal bands to melodic doom to shoegaze/post rock/darkwave. Inspiration however comes from many other sources and not only from the music of others. A natural landscape, a book, a painting, a movie, a personal life experience, my dreams... All of this influences the way I write music and is an inexhaustible source of inspiration.
Serial Metalbums: "Riptide Tune" opens the album with a notable mix of intensity and serenity, setting a very unique tone. What does this track represent for you, and how does it capture the essence of the journey you want listeners to embark on in The Silence of Rust?
Matteo: With the first track I wanted to immediately make the listener understand what direction my project would take. The fact that from the middle of the song the pace changes completely, putting metal aside, shows that Marea is not only sonic aggression but there is also another side of it, more poetic, intimate and dreamy.
Serial Metalbums: Including the instrumental “Chiaroscuro” brings a momentary lull that feels intentional and reflective. What inspired you to incorporate this instrumental track, and what role does it play within the album's overall narrative and flow?
Matteo: Chiaroscuro was initially supposed to be just a 50-second outro of the song “Sidereal” but then I decided to give it more space and make it a song on its own, so that it could serve as a breather between two emotionally charged tracks like “Sidereal” and “Irreversible”.
Serial Metalbums: "Sidereal" and "Irreversible" are both powerful and dynamic pieces, moving between heavy and melodic elements. Can you share the creative process behind these tracks and how you crafted their shifts in intensity to evoke such a charged emotional atmosphere?
Matteo: The creative process behind these two pieces is not different from the one I described to you previously. Once I wrote the main riff after playing it, thinking it or dreaming it, then the rest comes by itself based on what I think the song needs. For Sidereal I felt that the song needed a more classic black metal part and that's why after the first riffs, which are more in the Depressive/Doom style, the song takes a different direction and explodes in a central part with blast beats and harmonized guitars in tremolo in a melodic black metal style. Irreversible on the other hand I think is much less heterogeneous regarding the change of styles and genres, despite the different riffs. Actually, I think that the song flows organically from the beginning to the end with the same melancholic feeling and vibes.
Serial Metalbums: The album's title track, “The Silence of Rust,” stands out with its layered structure and evolving rhythm, moving from steady intensity to sudden aggression. How did you approach writing this complex piece, and what message or feeling do you hope listeners will take away from it?
Matteo: The title track, despite being the most complex and structurally elaborate song, was the one I composed the fastest. I wrote this 10-minutes long song in a weekend while all the other songs on the album took weeks/months of work. Funny to think that, despite this, this is my favorite song on the entire album and the one I'm most proud of. The idea behind this track was simply that it had to be the sum of everything the album has offered to the listener so far, meaning: atmospheric moments, doom rhythms, melancholic vibes, violent black metal parts, growls, high-pitched screams, clean vocals etc.
Serial Metalbums: Recording an album as a solo artist can come with its own set of challenges. How did the recording and production of The Silence of Rust unfold for you, and were there any particular hurdles or learning experiences that shaped the final sound?
Matteo: Since this was my first time entering a recording studio and the recordings lasted for several months, there were many challenges. Finding the right sound and balance of sounds was not easy, in fact we changed the mix several times until I felt that all the instruments had the right balance and weight. The great experience of Carlo Meroni of ADSR Decibel Studio helped a lot in shaping the sound I had in mind for this album. The lyrics were another great challenge. I have never written anything in my life that was not music and trying to find non-trivial words and lyrics that went well with the music, with the atmosphere and meter, was not easy and required many hours of study and work.
Serial Metalbums: The Silence of Rust has already captured the attention of listeners with its distinct blend of genres. How have you found the initial response, and are there any future projects or directions you’re envisioning for Marea that fans can look forward to?
Matteo: I am very glad and grateful for the great response from critics that my album has had, the reviews have been stunning! On the other hand, as audience/followers, my project is not very well known yet, but I can say that the few who wanted to immerse themselves completely and let themselves be transported by my music have then sent me messages or comments that were really heartwarming. However, I believe that my project is and will remain for the few who are looking for a more intimate vein within the violence of this kind of music. The average fan of the raw and fastest black metal I think might find my album uninteresting or boring.
Finally, I can tell you that there is a lot of other material I am working on, hope to share news with you soon!