Year of release: 2018
Label: More Hate Productions
Rating: 6,66 / 10
Bagnik Zine regularly and relentlessly engaged in praising the Belarusian scene, and because of that readers unfamiliar with it sometimes can think that I am blindly patriotic or something. In fact, this is not the case - there is enough shit in Belarusian metal. I just think that it's better not to pay attention to it, so that it quickly falls into the abyss of oblivion where it belongs. Frankly, I expected a large shovel of shit from SERPENT SFERUM / ECLIPSED split as well. See for yourself: the first band is Black Metal from Baranovichi (already suspicious), this split is their first release, the band members play in the project signed on Depressive Illusions. The second one is from Vladivostok, for 13 years of existence also did not record anything, except this split, and the number of musicians passing through the band is hilarious. Next: the split, as I understand it, was recorded back in the beginning of the decade, and it was supposed to be released 2 years ago on Dark East Prods (audience in the hall rises from the seats and rushes to the exit), but eventually it was released by More Hate Prods (the hall is empty). The latter can be seen with the naked eye, glancing at the cover. Perhaps More Hate is the only (along with Blacksmith) label in the post-USSR, the owner of which, even in 2018, still fucks in the eyes, sending releases with such degeneratic design to the printing house. Fonts from "Your black metal boy" set and an absolutely indistinct bullshit on the cover - the corporate style of the two above-mentioned experienced publishers, who manage to make you unwant to buy the CD, even if you like the music.
So, with such a biased attitude I approached the "Cold Silence", but the trio from Baranovichi immediately switched my thoughts to a different wave, making me remember that in this city there are glorious traditions of extreme metal, and the local population prefers only the most evil and unholy performers. Very qualitatively (in a good sense) executed and recorded, black metal from SERPENT SFERUM surprises with a responsible and serious attitude attitude. I will also note a reasonably occult shade of lyrics and music. The sound resembles a good Swedish Black Metal of the period 2005-2010. Everything is so majestic, cold, arrogant, magical, infernal. It's sounds convincingly, I can't name any really weak spots. Well, with ECLIPSED everything turned out as it was expected. Modern crap, typical for More Hate's owner who likes to speculate about black metal and Satan, but is unlikely to recognize them, even if confronted face to face. ECLIPSED is one of those fake bands that look like Black Metal (more precisely, they try, because this funny "corpsepaint" is more like a coloring for Halloween), they sound like Black Metal, they sing about the right things, but still they do not perform Black Metal, they play Black Metal. For research purposes, you can look at their странице Вконтакте; everything here is in the palm of your hand: gigs with some shitty bands, the delightful "only the essence of the Black Doctrine!" (for crying out loud, what the fuck), sweet New Year's greetings. After that, it's no longer surprising that the lyrics of the band embody all the worst features of "Russian metal", the vocalist pathologically sings incorrectly (I'm not talking about getting into notes, but about understanding when and how to sing) and the music does not contain a single remembered fragment. The sound is relatively good, but faceless: with the same settings you can record everything from Death Metal to metalcore, noone will notice the difference. I will sum up the results: it's time for SERPENT SFERUM to leave this ship to show a little legibility, to hire a straightforward designer and to aim at higher goals. And to the Far Eastern passengers I wish a long and close cooperation with More Hate. Still recommend you to buy the CD, but remember that only the first half is worthy.
English (UK) 
Крыўская