Year: 2025
Label: Skon
Rating: 6,9 / 10
The third release of Skon - a project of GHASH guitarist Armaros, inspired by the powerful HATE FOREST. This is a short EP of less than 20 minutes, containing two tracks. It has achieved undoubted success in conveying the same sound and feeling. Less attentive listener could even mistake this music for the Ukrainians' own material, if not for the peculiar riff in the finale. Saenko never had something like this (I don't mean anything negative, it's just clearly not his thing).
“Tolki hniły podych viečnaści” sounds menacing, cold, soulless, heavy and merciless. He paints that very image of the nameless evil that hovers over the ancient dead hollows and stones. Both songs have proper dynamics: fast segments, slow segments, intense mid-tempo segments. There is even an attempt to insert a classic Saenko's lead part with a melodic mood, but it turned out to be too modest. The drum machine is almost as homogeneous as on the first HATE FOREST recordings. The vocals are almost entirely low growls, like on later recordings. Armaros is critical of his vocal abilities, and I have to agree with him. There are no questions about timbre and power, but the more subtle aspects of singing are still quite raw. The technical side of the sound turned out to be very successful - there is volume, power, and atmosphere. Only the cymbals' clicking is very annoying, but this is a problem of all drum machines.
The general conclusions about ”Tolki hniły podych viečnaści" are almost the same as about the debut of NIABOŽČYK. A strong start. Now he needs to work on the style and/or improve the compositions, arrangements, sound, and all the other difficult-to-measure things that distinguish just good music from outstanding music. That is, if ŹNIEŽYVIEŁY continues to exist, as this project may be a one-time thing.
Personally, I would have done the opposite for the cassette edition of this EP. There's no telling what's on the cover, but inside there's an image of mountains that perfectly matches the music. I would put it on the cover. In addition, the inlay is printed only on one side, while the other side remains white. Details on the video.
