Ah more arriving from that cold metal hotbed the Ukraine, good; I really must visit some day. Not black metal this time but what I would describe as atmospheric doom with certain sensibilities towards both black and death. One thing I was surprised on researching after a fair few listens is that this is pretty much all the work of one person Astaroth although on this the third full length album he has enlisted the help of Athamas on vocals.
Atmospherics are instantly evoked with a sparkling frost laden keyboard sound (again think the likes of Astrofaes). Not sure what it is about Ukrainian synths but they always sound like they have been found in an old bunker and left over from the cold war, they certainly have their own unique feel about them. Songs are generally long and progressively flow; they are well constructed and put together. This first one ‘The Fall of the Mortal Aspirations’ clocks in at over 9 minutes and when the vocals come in you can feel the hoary and craggy demeanour behind them. Guitars strum, drums sound like they are from a machine and the bass drives away. The recording is not all sparkly but has a good cold feel about it that kind of makes you shiver and melody is rife here mainly due to expansive tripped out keyboard parts. “Sadness of death and decay of love” were apparently influences and inspiration on making the album and it is felt on the maudlin moments that meld together the upfront gallops.
‘My Birds Of Misfortune’ has a particularly stomp heavy riff about it and drives it home with a good pummelling groove that will stay in your head. It could have been left as a 4 minute number to get the message across but that appears not to be something in the group’s makeup as they let things evolve into long flowing instrumental swathes before finally nailing the coffin door shut by repeating the riff heavy chorus again. Some things are lost in the translation a bit such as song title ‘A Fading Scent of Cinnamon and Naked’ but the nice doom laden and depressive mindset of the number is easy to comprehend. It is pretty easy to get lost here and just let the music flow; it did actually take a few listens to fully get to grips but now I find myself nicely won over. The majestic instrumental ‘Escape To The Stars’ reminds a bit of Insomnium with its cold flow as well as Catamenia who I note are amongst top friends on the bands MySpace page. So if you have not yet decided, as the song says, to take ‘Suicide As The Destined End,’ this is well worth checking out.
http://www.myspace.com/raventale
