Year: 2024
Label: Metal Race Records
Rating: 8,3 / 10
Let me remind the readers of Bagnik Zine that ЛЕТАЛЬНЫЙ ИСХОД is the band of my friend Anatoly Golovchenko, the boss of Metal Race Records, as well as a master of all trades, except maybe the vocals, when it comes to heavy music. After much misadventures, unsuccessful attempts and suffering, in 2021 Tolya managed to create not a project, but a band, and, as I understand, most of his creative aspirations are now aimed at ЛЕТАЛЬНЫЙ ИСХОД. In the 2 years since the debut album, ЛЕТАЛЬНЫЙ ИСХОД lost a guitarist and a bassist (and then found another guitarist). It would have confused someone else, but the Anatoly Golovchenko Locomotive has already gained momentum, and it cannot be stopped, derailed, or restrained!
“Опустошение” turned out to be several times more ambitious, professional, adult and versatile album than a debut. “Избыточная смертность” was far from primitive, but still simple to perceive, sincere, predatory death thrash metal with a very cold sound. Perhaps the only thing left on the new album is that very cold. ЛЕТАЛЬНЫЙ ИСХОД shows itself in another incarnation: now it is a harsh, intense death doom of the ancient school. After an almost heavy metal introduction, the band begins with a hard-ass ASPHYXiation, which gradually turns into a frosty WINTER and becomes more and more MY(S)THICal. The slow tempo persists until the very finale, but it's impossible to call the album boring. Slowness here serves only as a means of creating the right feeling, and not as a way to artificially stretch the album for an hour and a half. On the contrary, “Опустошение” is very short by doomy standards - 35 minutes only. That's why music never stands still. As soon as you comprehend some fragment, the next one comes.
In addition, there is an unusual element in every track except the first one. “Обострение” begins with a sad monologue by a little girl. “Болезнь” has backing vocals and some keys. “Раскаяние” is a cover of РУССКАЯ ЗИМА with an authentic guitar solo from a former band member and different vocals for each verse. “Тьма” is an apocalyptic story recited under ambient music by a professional voice actor. “Опустошение” is a grand finale with epic and depressing guitar arrangements. It's also worth adding that almost half of the Urals participated in the album - the entire line-up of the WARHEAD band, Tolya's friends (if not brothers) from ВСПОЛОХ, ETNA's bassist, and a crowd of other people. And also the leader of GRENOUER. All this greatly enriched the album. When so many people contribute to music, it just can't help but be diverse. But somehow they managed to squeeze it all into 35 minutes and make it sound like one solid stone. I would also like to note that the main vocalist V.V. began to sing much more boldly. Already on the first track, she demonstrates that she can growl low, high, gloomy, and angry. One more thing she could do now is to show some actual singing!
The ambitious approach is reflected in the technical and physical implementation. The album has a really high-quality and nearly perfect metal sound. It was released in an expensive digibook with a 16-page booklet that has all the lyrics and the illustrations made by MERKENT vocalist for each song (the rest of the design, as usual, was made by V.V. herself). Details on a video.
Why didn't I give the album a higher rating after all these praises? I don't know it myself yet. Most likely, I'm a little upset about the imbalance. A 6–and-a-half-minute recitative track on a record that lasts only 35 minutes is a little too much, I guess. Somewhere here, they lost another wholly-metallic song that could make a difference. After listening to "Опустошение", I find myself with mixed feelings every time. On the one hand, there are more events and riffs here than in any standard 70-minute doom album. And there is no such feeling that there is some haste, not enough time to breathe, etc. No, each fragment sounds exactly as long as it needs to. On the other hand, it is still not enough. It leaves you to want more. Such a paradox.
English (UK) 
Крыўская