Year: 2023
Label: Ural Megalith
Rating: 7,6 / 10
The Ural Megalith publishing initiative has been around for a very long time, about 7 years, if I'm not mistaken. Its original goal was to reissue the recordings of an old cult band, but somehow it didn't work out. Eventually, the label transformed its concept and undertook everything anew. Ural Megalith at the present stage is managed by my old friend Hlad and mr. A. from the band NOTHING. Hlad played drums in NOTHING and is the creator of the band ВИХРЬ, where, in turn, A. once sang, and ВСПОЛОХ are the close friends and neighbours of both. As you can see, this release is not just a split, but a real album - a manifesto of that part of Ural scene. Even in the "Ural Megalith" booklet there are no names and photos of participants (except guests), since everyone here is working for a common cause.
It so happened that based on the results of a careful study of all the components of the release, I will criticize it more than I will praise it, but first we traditionally inspect each group separately. The album opens by the song of NOTHING, starting with a bombardment of blast beats without any preparation. To tell the truth, I have long hated the various intros and preludes with which almost every album begins now, but on "Ural Megalith", in my opinion, it would've make sense to make a slower start so that the listener, so to speak, would be inspired by the significance of the moment. Well, we have what we have. NOTHING plays a fairly typical Russian dark extreme metal with one-dimensional and straightforward guitar parts. It is quite possible that the roots of mr. A. lie not even in metal, but in RAC. The vocals turned out to be a little more interesting - thanks to emotional voice and a little echo effect. The melodies of NOTHING are not bad, but the sound is completely characterless, as if the instruments were plugged directly into the computer during recording and then brought together without any additional work. This technique gave positive results in analog times, but not in our digital ones.
ТЕМЕНЬ, as we found out during the interview, is the newest project of Hlad. This is the first time, if I'm not mistaken, since FROSSET SKOG, when he sings himself. From the point of view of the musical structure, ТЕМЕНЬ is not much different from NOTHING, since it is also quite linear metal. However, due to some additional "production", high speeds and malevolent approach, this band sounds really dark. Maybe there is nothing fresh at all, but tremolo riffs of ТЕМЕНЬ were clearly created very carefully to ensure the maximum flow of music. Must also add also add that the guys managed to restrain themselves within the framework of good taste: for all the aural viciousness, ТЕМЕНЬ never completely drifts to the side where Satan lives and their music never turns into shitty copycat of MARDUK, as it often happens with this style of metal.
ВСПОЛОХ has always been in my favor, as it is a European-level band that, living gods know where, creates music that most Germans or Scandinavians working in this genre will never reach. On "Ural Megalith" they offer two tracks in their familiar style – with a variety of guitar parts, warm sound, an obligatory harp and a sense of well-deserved solidity. As usual, the atmospheric music of ВСПОЛОХ envelops and perfectly stimulates the imagination. Pay attention to simple but beautiful keyboard parts in the style of КОБЬ - as another tribute to the Ural roots of the group.
ВИХРЬ, which has always been prone to pathos (in a positive sense), finishes the album in the expected way with its track ”Winter". Stylishly, it is close to the works from the album "Кощунство": : high goals, dynamic performance and a wealth of expressive means, among which are female vocals and a small violin part. Hlad is responsible for the main vocals again; if I'm not mistaken, he sings for ВИХРЬ for the first time in his life, and does that very well.
Now to the critical remarks. I understand that the goal of Ural Megalith – both the publishing house and the album - is to create a kind of hub for like-minded groups, and this release is, as already mentioned, a manifesto, a statement that a new player has appeared on the dark scene. But from a creative point of view, this is self-repetition: the praise of the spiritual and physical essence of Ural in more or less the same words and similar sounds already took place 10 years ago, on the split album "...among the mossy stones". Now specifically about the words: the lyrical component compared to what I have already heard from these bands earlier, is also static. The lyrics are eloquent written in beautiful language, but all of them (with the exception of ВСПОЛОХ) partly tell about generalized things like "the pitch-black spirit of Ural". That is, to use a literary term, landscape lyrics. It used to work, but with each repetition the effect is getting weaker. The verses lack meaningful depth, binding to something real or some kind of concept. ВСПОЛОХ more or less solved this problem by writing songs about Inzer and Shigir, the rest did not. As an example of handling this kind of lyrics, I can cite KRUK texts, where each line made sense and referred to certain ideologues, places or ritual practices, traditional or personal. Another claim: probably, this is a syndrome of deceived expectations, but I somehow thought that for a release of this caliber, all the participants would prepare killer tracks, each of which would be something grandiose. But in fact, the material of NOTHING and ТЕМЕНЬ looks partly like a presentation against the background of more well-known partners. And from this follows the last, albeit minor, problem: due to the similarity of the musical structures of the first two bands, it is difficult to notice the transition from one to the other. The first half of the album merges a little into a whole. If ВСПОЛОХ and ТЕМЕНЬ were reversed in the tracklist, the album would sound more impressive.
Despite all these controversial points, ”Ural Megalith" is objectively a very strong release, the cultural value of which has the potential for growth. In the end, everything will depend on the fate of the initiative. If Ural Megalith develops, acquires new releases and a cult reputation, then this split will remain in history as the beginning of something big, and not a one-time strong statement. The physical edition of "Ural Megalith" has a circulation of only 200 copies: 100 Jewels and 100 digibooks. Digibook has a booklet of the highest quality with all the lyrics and photographs of Ural megaliths as illustrations. Details on a video. The audio version of the split can be taken from Bandcamp for free.
English (UK) 
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