Review: MOTHER WITCH & DEAD WATER GHOSTS – Ruins of Faith

Year of release: 2015 / 2016 (this release)
Label: addicted label / DGRecords / The Mighty Riff Records
Rating: 6,8 / 10

The next album from the no name label which I will tell you about is “Ruins of Faith” of Ukrainians with the bulky name MOTHER WITCH & DEAD WATER GHOSTS. Perhaps this is the most uncomplicated of the works sent to me in a promotional package from Moscow. Classic psychedelic doom - not another retro shit, but quite modern-sounding stuff with female vocals. Unhurried, as expected, the compositions envelop you with their warm rocky sound and carry your soul to distant forgotten shores. No musical tricks, unconventional instruments, half-hour ambient paintings and the like. Simple stuff, and surprisingly concise - the duration of the album is 27 and a half minutes. The songs are good, but I can’t say why. Only the title track is memorable, others have nothing remarkable. They are just nice to listen to. Good melodies, perfect fluidity. Such music can safely be presented to your mom or even grandma. Most likely, this is due to the outstanding quality of recording and performance. “Ruins of Faith” is easy to confuse with the products of some large British label, so good it is from the technical point of view. In addition, vocalist Maria Teplitskaya plays a crucial role. Her strong and expressive voice, completely devoid of accent, holds a good half of the atmosphere.

More about the dubious sides of the album. Rummaging through the official web resources of the band and turning the disc in my hands, I concluded that MW & DWG seem to be passionate about occultism, but it seems to be only at the superficial level. There is nothing particularly mystical / occult / ritual in music - just an easy aura of mystery. The lyrics are too blurry to extract some information from it. Any of the lyrics from “Ruins of Faith” would have worked for some non-stupid western pop hit. Therefore, I can call the album soulful, but not spiritual.

The CD edition of the album is made in the format of a 6-panel digipack with a disc in the middle. Unfortunately, there are no texts - all panels covered with the artwork exclusively. The artwork is quite good, but the color scheme makes it difficult to perceive. At first it’s hard to even understand what is shown on the cover. The disc was released by the forces of as many as three labels, one of which is American, and the other is Indian. US label also released a vinyl version limited to 240 copies. You can look closer at digipack on a video.