Artist: Quintessence Mystica
Title: The 5th Harmonic Of Death
Type: Albums
Label: Schwarzdorn Productions
By now everyone knows that Ukraine has a wealth of good underground metal acts, one could say it is something in the water but I would hate to be politically incorrect here knowing one thing the country is unfortunately infamous for. Rich for everything from architecture to literature, as far as Wiki is concerned if you look at the page about music in the area, again there is plenty of information about the traditional aspects, through to the classical and as far as the popular music of today is concerned metal gets this one line. “Influenced by their Norwegian counterparts, Black Metal bands include Nokturnal Mortum, Drudkh, Hate Forest, Svarga and Dub Bak.” The Norwegian influence is for a start pretty unfair as anyone who knows their stuff will attest; Ukrainian black metal has its own distinct sound, which literally bristles with its own heritage. As for the rest, tip of the iceberg indeed. One thing that can be fairly stated is that the players in this scene are pretty incestuous as far as band hopping is concerned, often playing in plenty of groups and it would be interesting seeing some sort of family tree showing this. Quintessence Mystica are no exception as the project is helmed by Master Alafern who is also main composer as well as bassist, guitarist and violinist and involved with Thunderkraft, Svyatogor and Triglav. This is the debut album for the project but already it is fairly old having been put together just after foundation in 2008 and apparently second album ‘Duality’ is projected for early 2011.
Everything literally ploughs in at full force on opener ‘Vector Space Of Desires,’ drums batter and a hellish roar is unleashed. Although Master Alafern is behind all the instruments Dromos Aniliagos handles the vocals and has a nice hefty guttural rasp about him. Keyboards add a wild jig about it and the symphonic elements are found cantering away behind the bombast. I notice that Munruthel is behind sound mix and engineering, both he and Alafern served time in Nokturnal Mortum at some point and the formers solo albums are essential listening. Horn sounds herald ‘Triumph Of Cold Steel’ and it’s like an attack on Lord Of The Rings one that in this case is led by the Orcs and Goblins and forces of evil. This is heavily atmospheric and fantastical stuff dealt out with a great grasp of melody but as fast and black as one could wish for. ‘Entropy Of Sanity’ is some macabre violin and gibbering possessed mutterings, sane it is not and effects sounding like they are on the edge of a swamp are also heard. This really reminds of some of the weird incidental parts I heard on Munruthel’s excellent ‘Oriyanskiye Skazan'ya’ Later we get to the clash of steel on ‘Unleashing The Dogs Of War,’ I actually thought they had already been unleashed at the album start but this is a battle that is obviously a hard fought one over several campaigns. After the maudlin but also quite romantic keyboard part ‘Memorial’ we gear up for the final assault with ‘The Symphony Of Bare Feelings’ going like the clappers and clearing all in its path. As for the rampant finale dished out with neo-classical aplomb, perhaps ‘Frankenwald Mystery’ is something to be revealed in the future?
I really enjoyed this album and it has made me dip back and listen to a load of other Ukrainian insurgents whilst in the process of listening to it. I certainly hope that the sequel is not long coming and then a third part, as it deserves the trilogy treatment. If you like war hewn, symphonic metal you really cannot go wrong here at all the only trouble you may find is lack of info as the project does not have official pages or even an entry on Metal Archives at present.
http://www.myspace.com/schwarzdornproduction
