After over a decade of silence, one of the best-kept secrets in the Italian underground scene is rising from the ashes. JANVS, the Roman god of beginnings, passages and endings, is a black metal entity formed in Genoa over two decades ago, which may have fallen through the tides of time for many, but never really forgotten.
In the mid ‘00s JANVS released two of the most personal and interesting black metal records ever to come out of Italy, Fulgures (2007) and Vega (2008), mixing excellent songwriting to a profound latin cultural heritage. A few years later the band re-recorded and officially released their early songs in Nigredo (2014) before disappearing into the waves of the Mediterranean sea. We were incredibly excited when composer and multi-instrumentalist Matteo “Vinctor” Barelli told us the band was working on new music once again. JANVS lineup is once again completed by Massimo “m:A Fog” Altomare on drums and Claudio “Malphas” Fogliato on bass, and the trio is ready to release the new EP Fatum Est.
In their own words, in Fatum Est, each song draws on a myth, a figure, or an episode from the Hellenic tradition, reshaping and deconstructing its narrative into an existential vision that is both intimate and universal. This work is dedicated to those who defy the gaze of the gods, burning without oxygen in infinitesimal and eternal moments of beauty and death, drowned in the void of a cosmos eternally identical to itself, devoid of any purpose. Moving forward from the softer atmospheres of Vega, expect intensity and desperate cosmic ferocity.
JANVS new release was produced and mastered by the legendary Dan Swanö, and will be released on CD and digital via Avantgarde Music on October 16th, 2026. Preorders will be opened in due time.
