Year: 2024
Label: Заиндевевшая Рябина
Rating: 7,2 / 10
The Russian band, named after the river, plays very uncomplicated metal with a strong sense of melancholy and a good atmosphere. "Ritual XXVI", as I understand it, is either an alternative or a rehearsal version of the self-titled demo from a year 2023. If the demo was conventionally a "studio" recording, then "Ritual XXVI" is totally live and organic. As it says on the j-card, recorded in one take.
Based on the first track, it seems that УВОДЬ, compared to the other russian bands of the similar style, has nothing new to offer, but this impression is wrong. Already in the second track, the music dramatically gains emotions, and the manner of performance changes to a slightly more complex one. There is a clear division into rhythm and lead guitar, then small arrangements are added, followed by something similar to a solo. Although all the compositions are based on ”squares", where the key of the final chord of each riff alternates in an old-fashioned manner (lower-higher), it is interesting to listen to them, as the band managed to saturate the music with a sincere sad feeling without falling into the abyss of tears and snots. УВОДЬ doesn't copy anyone: they're not a BBH clone, or modern russian "atmospheric blackers", like GRIMA, but at the same time they're not something standartized and faceless. In some places, УВОДЬ resembles the Finns, in some places the old Poles, in some places the first album of ВИХРЬ, and in the fifth track, I suddenly heard a familiar style of... Niemaracz Clan bands. However, I don't see anything surprising here, because УВОДЬ is a band from Tver, and Tver is an ancient historical land of the Krywians.
However, the most important aspect of УВОДЬ's creative output at the moment is the sound. Perhaps my main complaint about the bands from RF is that they go to the studio, where they select the standard settings for everything, and record in this sound. Because of this careless attitude, it turns out that another band claiming to be Black Metal sounds like deathcore, which makes it shit and zeroes its possible reputation in the eyes of everyone who cares about the cleanliness of the scene. Dear musicians, a truly interested listener doesn't need every instrument to be heard in your songs. No one fucking cares. That's not the main thing! The ones who usually complain about dirty / obsolete / primitive sound are the Internet people who would never spend a penny on your releases anyway. The sound of each band should have a character. “Ритуал XXVI” is one of the examples. This is a typical "live in studio", it's sloppy and dirty, , you can't always hear everything well here. However, it sounds a hundred times more charismatic than, for example, “The Perfection of Nothingness” of NOTHING. Moreover, the other two records of УВОДЬ which are neater, also have a recognizable sound. You can find many weak points in it, but this is their own sound, not some universal "modern high-quality" garbage.
As a result, we have a strong release worthy of attention. This music can and should be improved, but the band is only 3 years old, so everything will be fine if there is a desire. The cassette edition is minimalistic this time: there is only art and a photo of the band with hidden faces on the j-card. The limitation is 30 copies. Interestingly, on the official Bandcamp, the band describes itself as a duo, but there are four members here. Details on a video.
P.S. This and other records of УВОДЬ can be downloaded from Bandcamp for free.
P.P.S. As a famous character used to say, I have lingering doubts that УВОДЬ got a little confused with all these Roman numerals. After all, why then was the release of 2024 released under the name "Ritual 26"? But if you swap I and V...
