THE BREATHING HOUSE

The Breathing House is the debut release by Italian avant garde/ post metal act Manuscripts Don´t Burn. The Breathing House is a 6 track EP. The EP was released in October 2010 by Amaranth Recordings/ Aural Music. Manuscripts Don´t Burn is a one-man project by Ephel Duath mastermind Davide Tiso. Davide Tiso handles everything from playing to recording to mixing and producing on the release.

The music on the EP is a kind of instrumental post rock/ metal with avant garde elements. Lots of open dissonant chords and an adventurous/ unconventional approach to structure. I´ll mention Ved Buens Ende, Virus, Kailash and other bands of their ilk as references. The Breathing House is completely instrumental though. Guitar, bass, drums and that´s it. Knowing the often weird avant garde nature of some of Ephel Duath´s output it´s a bit surprising that The Breathing House is a more "subtle" affaire. Subtle in this sense of the word is not meant as mellow though. The music on The Breathing House is intense and at times harsh, but there are actually very few avant garde elements on the EP. A song like the closing The Iron Dog Protecting The Sea is probably the closest you´ll get to avant garde metal on this release. The rest of the EP is more in a bleak post rock/ metal style yet still adventurous.

The production is well sounding. There´s an authentic feel to the music and sometimes it´s like being in the same room as Davide Tiso.

The Breathing House is an interesting side-project by Davide Tiso. I´m not completely blown away, but yet again the man shows that everything he touches has relevance. His adventurous approach to creating music is admirable. A 3.5 star rating is warranted.