Valak

T

he origins of Valak can be traced back to September of 2000 following the demise of Devoured Carcass under the leadership of Jacopo Renzoni (a.k.a. Jac; guitar) and Alessandro Cicconi (drums). With the arrival of vocalist Marcello Malvaso, and under the influences of the style of Dark Funeral, they recorded their "Melodic black metal" with the first demo resulting in February of 2001 titled simply Demo 2000, with Elisa Generali on bass and Fabio Generali as second guitarist. It was a low cost recording and the production cutbacks were evident. Shortly after the recording's completion Terenzi Ni cola (a.k.a. Nico) took over from Fabio and the band's direction, with the addition of these members, moved into a more 'deathly' sound, but Elisa would leave to be substituted Empio, and then by Luigi as session bass player; Razvan would shortly after arrive on violin for sessions.

It was April 2003 when they finished recording their first self produced demo CD From The Gloomy Sky, which featured a complex song writing style under the line-up of Jacopo Renzoni (guitar), Alessandro Cicconi (a.k.a. Ale; drums), Marcello Malvaso (vocals) and Terenzi Nicola (guitar). In an attempt to recapture and improve o n their atmospheres and musical structure they would begin work on the Live Split (2003) live album split with Necrolust. It wasn't to last, however, and the band split in 2005.