Gods Tower - "The Turns" [1997]

Artist: Gods Tower

Title: The Turns

Genre: Pagan Doom Metal

Country: Belarus

Release date: 1997

Track List:

1. Intro / The Turns
2. I Am the Raven
3. Seven Rains of Fire
4. Twilight Sun
5. An Eye for an Eye
6. Rising Arrows
7. Blood
8. Mysterious
9. Iprit (bonus)
10. Eversleepside (bonus)
11. Inis Afalon (bonus)

The importance of this band for the history of metal scene in Belarus is hard to overestimate. It can be said for sure that they were the first doom metal there, as well as the first pagan metal band (and, quite likely, one of the first pagan metal bands in the whole ex-USSR).

They were formed initially as a thrash metal band in 1989 by Alexander Urakov and his friend best known under the moniker "Lesley Knife". Initially they took the name "Ranger", but changed it to "Chemical Warfare" shortly thereafter. After releasing a demo tape in 1992, they finally switched their style to doom metal and took their current name "Gods Tower".

After several lineup changes mid-1990, they have released several demos, and finally, in 1997 - two full-length albums named "The Turns" and "The Eerie". By that time, they already were a quite well-known and actively touring bands, but unfortunately, their lifestyle was the embodiment of all negative stereotypes of post-Soviet rock/metal scene during the 1990s and early 2000s - most importantly of all, excessive drinking, which caused the band to split up in 2001. Alexander Urakov died in late 2003 due to liver failure caused by alcoholism, and their second guitarist Alexander Eristov died an year after from the same cause. In 2010, Lesley Knife decided to bring the band back together.

I personally found out about Gods Tower when I was a teenager, shortly after A. Urakov has died. Back then, i was reading a Minsk-based zine Legion, the only metal magazine I had access to at that time. "The Turns" still remains my favourite work out of all their 3 full-length albums. Its quiality of production is of course far from perfect, and the lyrics can seem quite naive at times, but they managed to produce an unique kind of doom metal with "ritualistic" pagan atmosphere and psychedelic folk melodies, largely thanks to A. Urakov's guitar skills. Listen to the track "Seven Rains of Fire" to get a good example of what I'm talking about. My personal favourites on this album, however, are "Rising Arrows" and especially "An Eye for an Eye":