The Ukraine has some fucking good stuff to offer. Okay, to some it’s just a funny place on a map somewhere near Russia, but they have given us Drudkh, Nocturnal Mortum and now you can add Munruthel (reviewed this month on these pages), Ego Depths and Darktrance. To coin a phrase, it’s all good!
Now, at the start of the month a big, fat package landed on my doorstep, and packed with no less than eight CD’s from this Eastern European based label it felt rather like Christmas had come early! I spent the day listening to each of these albums once through in the background while I went about my usual daily business and while most of them were pleasurable on these ears it was this one that just leapt out at me.
‘Beyond The Gates Of Insanity’ instantly draws you in with its sinuous and hypnotic guitar melody, while the tortured vocals scrape at your insides. This track has despair and misery in abundance and a quick look at the booklet tells that the lyrics are every bit as despondent as they should be. There’s an apocalyptic vibe to this number especially with the way it breaks apart and is left open for the male baritone and crying infant to play out as though judgement day is nigh. ‘Halfdrained’ scrapes in and introduces us to some slow, tortured black metal which grinds down into a rather mysterious chorus where female vocals appear alongside the deathly growls. This one is slow and intense and the layers of beauty are weaved around a crushingly heavy core. The thick bass-line kicks out a fair bit of power and drums work up a hateful battery with crashing cymbals and fills of intensity; as the shoegazy guitars work their magic you can almost feel the bass closing in on you.
Now, this is a good album alright but the third track is an absolute stunner! This one slowly sweeps in with lush melancholic guitars and a bumbling bass line reaching the moment when vocals wail out; there’s a naturalness to them as they sound clear enough to understand the lyrics but still are a little distorted and there’s total desperation to them as they yell out ‘I Don’t Want To Miss You’ repeatedly during the chorus. The sorrowful guitars have me well and truly entranced, while the solos are intricately weaved within the mix. I could froth over this for the next five hundred words but to save further embarrassment I’ll simply say this song alone would be enough to grant this album a place in my top 20 of the year.
‘Dreams Are Hollow’ has a kind of irregular Gothic rhythm rattling around in it, and keeps up the standard of the previous track just nicely before the album takes on a much more ambient façade with ‘Duskworld.’ This seems an appropriate name actually, as it certainly brings to mind the night sky; its dark and dare I say peaceful, and the cosmic sounds border on the trippy. ‘Shadows And Spirits’ as the name suggests carries on that ambience although balances it out with heavier, rather deathly passages, before ‘Alone’ brings everything to a close. There’s something rather ominous about this, through the eeriness of the keyboard sounds and the hypnotic guitars that tip-toe along at snails pace. The ethereal female wails are rather mesmerising and while all is quiet and calm the foundations are built upon by crushing layers as the track draws to an end.
At 40 minutes, this isn’t too long either and it’s a lovely album to just lay down to listen to and just allow the music to draw you in to a dark trance. Great stuff!
http://www.myspace.com/darktranceband
http://solitude-prod.com/index.html
