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The opening and closing tracks are like a pair of sludgy, trudgy bookends. In the opener, "Uomo Fa Cibo" (Italian for "Man Makes Food"), the bass and drumkit labor to move forward against a near-static sheet of guitar and synth that stand there like a video on super-slo-mo. The sonic elements eventually dissolve into a homogeneity which ends unceremoniously. At the other terminus is "The Fattening." There was a "reddit battle" by this name in 2015, but I think this title could just as easily refer to the song's thickness. Anyway, "The Fattening" almost serves as a coda to "Rebus (6, 5)," so much does it resemble that number in most respects. One point of difference between the penultimate and final tracks, though, is tempo. "The Fattening" starts slowly, with relatively little rhythm, but eventually, overlapping in-tempo synth and guitar patterns establish a hypnotic repetition. The sonic elements eventually dissolve into a homogeneity which ends unceremoniously. Or did I say that already? Translated into English, the band's name means "Death Liquid" or possibly "Liquid of Death," but the opening and closing tracks suggest a very viscous liquid, if not a thick syrup.

Other songs are a bit more peppy. Take "Tramonto Nucleare" ( "Nuclear Sunset," though I'm not sure what that means; there's nothing particularly nuclear about the track, although there is an appreciable ritardando and an extended fade - - perhaps that's the sunset?) as an example. After a one-minute intro, a nice drums-and-guitar rhythm settles in, and it sounds like the backing track to a Billy Idol song, even after a synth arpeggio appears. But around 3:30, the rhythm changes, then stops, and it's back to sludge territory. Over its last minute, "Tramonto Nucleare" disintegrates, and the last twenty-five seconds are near-silence. And then there's "Rebus (6, 5)," which accounts for just about precisely one third of the album's runtime. It builds slowly, with a nice analog-sounding synth over a semi-martial drumbeat, beginning around 8:30; eventually a distorted (and distorting) guitar overtakes the soundscape, although the rhythm continues. Interestingly, in the last half-minute, the song returns, just briefly, to the state it occupied at 8:30, then disintegrates.

My favorite tune here, and another one whose name I don't understand, is "Strateron 2323." It evolves over its first minute into a hypnotic and insistent reiteration, spiraling, but not out of control. Reminds me of a whirlpool or a liquid being stirred violently - - a liquido di morte, perhaps? Anyway, it's a great song; I was playing it on repeat earlier and thinking that maybe this song, and not "Rebus (6, 5)," should've been the thirteen-minute centerpiece of the album.

I'm not sure how to classify |||| within progressive music - - psychedelic, post-rock, or maybe some other. Whatever it is, it's not my favorite prog subgenre. But for some reason I enjoy in particular the first half of the album. And "Strateron 2323" is absolutely fantastic. Three stars for a good album, regardless of classification.

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