62nd part of short reviews.
PYRE – Chained to Ossuaries
Year of release: 2020
Label: Memento Mori
Rating: 8,3 / 10
The St. Petersburg band quickly and irresistibly burst onto the scene in 2012, thundering an excellent EP "Ravenous Decease". It sounds pretentious, but PYRE really became one of the saviors of the death metal scene of my eastern neighbors at a time when the phrase “modern Russian Death Metal” did not bring to mind any worthy name, except, perhaps, GROND. The new PYRE album deserves all praise, undoubtfully. These people know what both Death and Black Metal is all about, therefore everything's alright with both brutality and atmosphere here. PYRE works excellently at all speeds, their music is rough and violent as it should be. At first I wanted to roll out a full review of the album, but then I decided that there was no need to waste my words - I just recommend it. Proper Death Metal of the highest standard, 100% quality.
PRAH – I
Year of release: 2020
Label: Surrogate Rec.
Rating: 6 / 10
Demo recording of a project founded by the vocalist of MERZOTNA POTVORA and his bassist buddy. Primitive blackened metal with a good drum machine will do just fine for a demo. The recording is completely devoid of any post-producing and is presented as is: stripped-down. The texts are written in Russian, even in rhyme. It turned out, as usual, not without pearls. Probably, Russian is just bad for describing all kinds of fantastic nightmares and cruelty; associations with КОРРОЗИЯ МЕТАЛЛА inevitably arise. The mood of the demo is completely negative, and the name “ashes” is quite suitable for such music, however, I associate it with a lump of coal (no, I'm not one of those idiots who think that calling black metal “coal” is a great pun). It's just that everything here is the same black and dirty - in terms of not sound, but sensations. The demo is just over 15 minutes long, and this is enough time to understand what the band is striving for. Of course, on the album, if there will be one, this approach will not work; have to take everything to a new level and do some serious studio work.
BLACK FUNERAL – Scourge of Lamashtu
Year of release: 2020
Label: Iron Bonehead Productions
Rating: 5 / 10
My first acquaintance with the American Black Metal cult did not work out, and I am unlikely to listen to BLACK FUNERAL again. As for the lyrics, there are no questions, it turned out to be almost a fucking grimoire. But instead of the music, there is some melodic messy diarrhea, which is suddenly performed by Azgorh from DROWNING THE LIGHT. And for some reason “Scourge of Lamashtu” fails to surpass even the most unfortunate DTL releases. One way or another, the new BLACK FUNERAL disc can only be turned to for interesting reading or the notorious “black metal feeling”, but there is nothing to listen to.
ПУТЬ – Песни Смерти
Year of release: 2018 / 2020 (this version)
Label: Antiq Records
Rating: 5,5 / 10
When a band hits the tops of "atmospheric "black" metal" channels on YouTube, it’s a sure sign that they are offering mournful chewing gum from all sorts of hipster sound production patterns, and in the case of ПУТЬ (PATHWAY) the situation is something like this. The band put the accents very well, taking impressive promo photos and drawing a catchy cover. The visual component reflects two main features: the accordion and the notorious "Russian melancholy", which is still considered an interesting aesthetic phenomenon in the West, but in reality became too hackneyed years ago. By and large, the accordion is the only outstanding element of music, and only due to its exoticism but not some virtuoso parts. The rest is a banal fingering of long-recycled chords (there are no normal riffs of course). In vocals, there is an abuse of the simultaneous sound of "growling" and "screaming" vocal tracks. For some reason, Russia loves this tasteless solution. The muffled sound of the drums is indescribably disgusting. The lyrics are really good from a literary point of view, although they don't carry any message in themselves - just fascinating stories. All in all, don't be fooled, almost a million views on YouTube and a resounding success on Bandcamp don't mean anything by themselves.
IRAE – Lurking in the Depths
Year of release: 2020
Label: Signal Rex
Rating: 7 / 10
New album from a respected Portuguese project. Of course, this is traditional Black Metal. There are tons of hints of DARKTHRONE here, but there are some good keyboards too (in small numbers). The lyrics approach Satanism from a down-to-earth point of view, speaking about it at the level of everyday human existence. In short, everything is straightforward, correct and traditional. Nothing else is required from IRAE.
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