Year of release: 2020
Label: Werewolf Promotion
Rating: 7,9/ 10
Last year, ZAKLON celebrated its 21st birthday with its sixth full-length album. “Zychod” is without hesitation to be called a special event in the history of ZAKLON as it is the first recording to be made with a full lineup. However, this practically did not affect the style of music. ZAKLON is unshakable, its musical recipe is time-tested and does not need any updates.
Of course, small innovations are still present. Firstly, it is the improved sound. Now ZAKLON sounds softer and more elastic, without losing its recognizable gloomy coldness, and then there are live drums! Secondly, the songs, it seemed to me, were made with a passing glance at possible concerts. They have a smoother rhythm and a slightly more aggressive mood than before. There are slow tracks on “Zychod”, but nothing as depressing as on “Nikoli…”. The once plentiful acoustic snippets this time boiled down to the intro for the final track. Such compositions will obviously be more interesting to the ear of the concert audience. But don't worry, in terms of the atmosphere, ZAKLON is still musty, bitter and decadent. There is no human sorrow in Temnarod's vocals - only inveterate hatred. In this respect, the album is very similar to its predecessor. In addition, a horn and folk singing samples are also used here.
The lyrical part of the album deserves attention. Perhaps, with a slight stretch, it can be called conceptual. "Zychod" tells the story of the wanderings of unconscious forest ghosts who are looking for warm blood to sacrifice to the dark earth and then finally disappear into oblivion. This theme allowed Temnarod to glue together all the images and concepts traditional for ZAKLON in a wonderful way, from dead autumn to inescapable contempt for the human race. It's just only a couple of lines are allotted to anti-Christianity, but it follows from the logic of the narrative. The lyrics are written in a very powerful style, even better than on the previous album - with rhyme, pathos, and at the same time not inspiring, but, on the contrary, very ominous. Poems similar in style are sometimes written by Werwolf from SATANIC WARMASTER, only he writes about wolves and struggle, but not about rotten leaves and death.
In my opinion, “Zychod” has not surpassed “Viatry…”, but is only a hair behind. The predecessor started with two most powerful songs in the history of ZAKLON (not counting the immortal "Восені бязмоўе") and then slowed down, but the first impression did not stop acting until the very end. The new album is smoother, and while there are some great riffs here as well, sometimes they are being played with for too long or not creatively enough. A good example of this is “Nieba zhasaje”, where fiddling with a great main motive ends up being a little monotonous. Most of the shortcomings are covered by the lyrics, which perfectly complement the sound, but still “Viatry…” sits in memory more tightly. However, the question of whether to buy "Zychod" should not arise in principle.
The album was released by Werewolf Promotion in digipack format. The design, which contains a reference to BURZUM, turned out to be a little awkward, but the main thing is that there are all the texts inside. Details on a video.
English (UK) 
Крыўская