Romowe Rikoito - "Austradeiwa" [2005]

Artist: Romowe Rikoito

Title: Āustradēiwa

Genre: Neofolk, Neoclassical

Country: Baltic Lands
Year: 2005

Track List:

1. Etbaudisna
2. The Quest
3. The Rose and the Cross
4. A Sea-Spell
5. Song Of Proserpine
6. Blueberry Song
7. Artémis
8. Austras Swaikstan

Romowe Rikoito, formed in 1995, are the pioneers of post-Soviet dark folk scene (which is and always was quite small), along with Neutral. If I'm not mistaken, they're originally from Kaliningrad, but have strong ties with Lithuania, and prefer to call their location just "East Prussia" or "Baltic Lands". Everything they've composed sounds quite beautiful, but I personally find their first two albums a bit boring. "Austradeiwa" is their 3rd album, which I consider to be their best (even though it has some boring parts too - but what album hasn't?) In particular, "Austras Swaikstan" is one of the best neofolk compositions I've ever heard.

The most interesting part of this album is a couple of tracks with lyrics in Old Prussian language ("Austras Swaikstan" and the opening track). To my knowledge, the only other band to sing in Prussian was Kūlgrinda (on the album "Prūsų Giesmės"), but their music is authentic Lithuanian folk which is much harder to get into than Romowe Rikoito's neofolk

As it's evident from my blog, I listen to a lot of music with lyrics in exotic languages, but RR are one of the few bands that really managed to surprise me. In fact, my only thought during my first listening to "Austras Swaikstan" was: "Wait... what language is it?!" If you're interested what they're singing about in that song, here's an English translation of the lyrics (can't guarantee its accuracy, though):

"I live as if I just died. No blood in my veins, but darkness. I'm not from here, embodied outcast, a stranger to everybody, the one who does not belong to anyone in the world. I was looking for access to the utopias and found solace only in the Apocalypse. Every minute I'm covered with one thing: a lost paradise. How would I live, what would I do without these clouds? The brightest time of my life is when I'm looking at them. Melancholy is a longing for another world. Although I never knew what kind of world it is. Fatal melodious emptiness in every cell of the body - it is melancholy. My places, my homeland is the non-existence, which, according to the mystics, was found before God. My constant passion are forgotten gods and empty sanctuaries. The collapse of my grandfathers and great grandfathers I bear in blood, that absorbed all these fragments. Dark cloudy sky looks as if my consciousness personifies the firmament. We all live in a longing for death, and wait for the light the dawn."

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Rajfajh - "Ambient Collection" [2011]

Artist: RAJFAJH

Title: Ambient Collection

Genre: Dark Ambient, Industrial, Noise

Country: Russia
Year: 2011

Track List:

1. Technogen
2. Nastika (pt.I)
3. Fatum
4. Plato
5. Psychedelic Holes

RAJFAJH claim to be one of the oldest Russian experimental music projects in existence. The project was founded on 29th January 1991 in St.Petersburg by Dmitry and Victor (although they knew themselves at least since 1989). Dmitry did some experiments with noise even before that, using a reel tape recorder and all the other hardware that was available to him back then, but it's unclear if these recordings will ever be released to public.

The first demo, recorded in 1991, was named "Радость Покойника". The band members claim it to be black metal; it'll make Rajfajh the very first black metal band in USSR, if true. However, I seriously doubt it, especially since not a single track from this demo is available anywhere. So far, the earliest black metal demo from Russia to my knowledge is "Unholy Glory Of Ancient Rossa" by Winter Majesty (1994). The members of Satarial claim to be playing black metal as early as in 1989 (under the name A.M.S.G.) - but then again, there are no proofs for that, and the band itself has quite bad reputation, so I don't think these claims are trustworthy.

This compilation, released in 2011, is a selection of industrial, noise and dark ambient tracks recorded by Rajfajh during 1995-2009. They actually tried quite a lot of different genres - grindcore, black metal, doom metal - but I consider their industrial and ambient works to be the best, and not only because I prefer industrial over all other genres. If you're more interested in metal, I'd recommend to check out their latest full-length album, "Cult of Cthulhu" (2013). It's black/doom metal, quite good, but nothing particularly outstanding. The current lineup of Rajfajh consists of Dmitry Evgenin (the only original member), Alisa Rozanova (guitars/keyboards since 2006), and Dmitry (their new drummer since this year). They're also an active live band, and have toured all 3 Baltic states in May 2011, but I have no idea if they're ever going to tour anywhere in the Western Europe.

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Velehentor - "Sak-Yelga" [2005]

Artist: Velehentor

Title: Сак-Елга

Genre: Dark Ambient, Industrial, Noise

Country: Russia
Year: 2005

Track List:

1. Сак-Елга
2. Гной Земли

Since I have mentioned the projects of Anton "121" Shafarostov (Velehentor, Nuclear Winter, Closing The Eternity) quite a few times on my blog, it'd be natural to post at least one of his works - even if I think he's more of a musical critic rather than a musician.

Velehentor was founded in 1998, initially as a dark ambient side project by the members of Valhalla - one of the very first black metal bands to come from the Urals region (formed in 1996 in Ekaterinburg). A.Shafarostov was the vocalist/keyboardist of Valhalla, and was known under the moniker "Satt" back then. In 1998, Velehentor recorded their first live demo cassette, consisting of 3 untitled track, each over 10 minutes long. Valhalla broke up in 2000, and Velehentor became Anton's solo project after that. While his another solo project, Closing The Eternity, is mostly pure cosmic ambient/drone, Velehentor offers a wider range of genres: from minimalistic dark ambient (mostly earlier releases) to power electronics and industrial noise. The latest release from Velehentor up to date is a short EP called "Ceremonial Death" (2011).

As far as I know, Anton now is a high-ranked official in Ekaterinburg, and isn't very active as a musician anymore - maybe because of a lack of free time, maybe because he doesn't want his public career to be associated with his underground works... who knows? At least he still writes reviews for his webzine "Twilight Shadows", and that's my favourite part of his creative output - I love the sarcastic style of his reviews, as well as his extensive knowledge of underground black metal and music in general. I think he easily could start an avant-garde black metal project on the level of Arcturus or Ved Buens Ende, if he wanted to - but alas, he doesn't like progressive black metal, and most of his releases are quite minimalistic (be it metal, ambient, or noise).

"Саг-Елга" is a bit more varied than Velehentor's early releases, though - it's a mix of dark ambient and industrial/noise, with some spoken word vocals (which makes it one of the very few Velehentor/Closing The Eternity releases that aren't purely instrumental). As opposed to Valhalla, whose music was said to be influenced by "the dark aspects of Urals' nature", this cassette by Velehentor is rather influenсed by Urals' "anti-nature" (if I may say so). The ideology of Velehentor is generally based on the standard "anti-human / anti-life" black metal ideas, and this particular album is inspired by numerous industrial and environmental disasters that happened in the Urals region. The cover photo shows the vicinity of Karabash, a town on the Sak-Yelga river in South Urals which is known for very high levels of pollution caused by a copper smelting plant. From what I've seen on the photos from there, it's literally a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie came true. I also live not far from a very polluted industrial zone (Dzerzhinsk), but it's nothing compared to Karabash:

 

(the last photo is taken from a gallery which you can view here; photographer - Ilya Yakovlev, model - nich_ya)

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Vergeltung - "System Overload" [2008]

Artist: Vergeltung

Title: System Overload

Genre: Industrial Black Metal

Country: Russia
Year: 2008

Track List:

1. Alarm
2. System Overload
3. Spatial Cold
4. Arzamas-16
5. Electromagnetic Impulse
6. Gravitational Phantom of Deceased Nova
7. Interstellar Voidblast
8. Victims of Technology
9. Stalingrad
10. Cold War
11. Werk

One of the most professional and talented Russian industrial metal projects, Vergeltung, was formed in St.Petersburg in 2005 (metal-archives.com says 2002, but it's most likely incorrect). "System Overload" is their debut album, released by CD-Maximum in 2008. It was produced by Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69, Axxis, Krokus, Angra) and recorded in a Swedish studio "Cutting Room", so the quality of production is up to the best Western European standards. The music of Vergeltung is quite complex (of course not to the extent of causing a sensory overload, but it isn't "easy listening" either), so even the most demanding fans of avant-garde/industrial metal probably won't be disappointed.

Out of 9 tracks prestented on there (+ a short intro and a lengthy noisy outro, which is pretty much a filler track), my favourites are "Stalingrad" and "System Overload". Most of the tracks are instrumental, since the band doesn't have a proper vocalist - although there are some distorted vocals (or more like recitation) performed by their keyboardist. All the lyrics were witten by 121 (a member of Velehentor, Nuclear Winter, Closing The Eternity and several other projects, and a cult personality in Russian industrial & extreme metal underground). As you can guess from the song names, the main themes of this album are quite natural for a Russian industrial metal project: 2nd World War, the Cold War, the USSR's technological advances and the exploration of space. As it was stated by the band members themselves: "...social collapse, civilization's demise, global war and universal cataclysm; humanity's self destruction and non-existence - all that shape the concept of VERGELTUNG's work. The very name of the band embodies the cruel truth about the technology progress driven by the development of arms that bring mass destruction and death. It's not a secret that first rockets were built not to explore space and travel to the moon but rather to attack England and the US".

They've released a follow-up album, titled "Exploration of Space", in 2012, but it isn't as good as their debut. It isn't easy to buy "System Overload" on CD, and it isn't available on bandcamp either, so I hope it'd be OK to post it here:

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Infestum - "Monuments Of Exalted" [2014]

Artist: Infestum

Title: Monuments of Exalted

Genre: Black Metal

Country: Belarus
Year: 2014

Track List:

1. Void Of Nebulae
2. Ordo Infestum
3. Iron Hammer Upon The Skull Of Slave
4. Temples Of Mirrors
5. The Art Of The Beast
6. The Evil One (Venom cover)
7. Zero Beyond
8. Obsidian Exile
9. Renaissance
10. Monuments Of Exalted

Infestum are one of those bands which I discovered more than 10 years ago while familiarizing myself with the Belorussian metal scene (see my previous entries under the "Belarus" label). Back then, they were playing very standard black meta, and while their first EP (released in 2001) was good by the standarts of that time, it was nothing original/groundbreaking. They weren't very active in the mid-2000's, so I ceased to follow their news at some point - so it was suprising for me to know, that they're back with a new album, which doesn't sound much like their early releases.

The shift from "true" black metal to the more "industrial-esque" type of sound is easily explainable, though. The only original member of the band still remaining in their lineup is Ion, the lead singer and the founder of the band. All the rest are former members of ID:Vision (which, unfortunately, have split up an year after the release of "Destination Cybermind"). So you can guess what kind of music they present on this album - call it "industrial black metal", "cosmic black metal" or whatever, it sounds good either way, and for me it's one of the best black metal albums of 2014 I've heard up to date.

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Nutrition - "Dusk Of The Hunter" [2012]

Artist: Nutrition

Title: Dusk Of The Hunter

Genre: Industrial Black Metal

Country: USA
Year: 2012

Track List:

1. Forbidden Moon
2. Dawn of the Harvest
3. R-Complex
4. Dragon Kings
5. Castle of Cold

If you want some "cosmic"/sci-fi themed black metal, but you prefer it to be rather raw than atmospheric, check out Nutrition. I don't know much about them, except they're a duo formed in early 2009, and released their first LP "Terminus Occultus" in 2013. I personally recommend listening to this EP first, though.

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Mars On Earth - "Mars on Earth" [2001]

Artist: Mars On Earth

Title: Mars On Earth

Genre: Industrial Metal

Country: Mars Germany
Year: 2001

Track List:

1. Mars on Earth (intro)
2. Planets
3. Die Stadt Ist Im Krieg
4. Bleeding Underwater

Enough with symphonic metal, let's continue reviewing more obscure and "industrial-esque" albums. This MCD is a perfect example of what kind of music I wish to review here in the first place: it's a very obscure but really interesting release consisting of 3 tracks (and a relatively short ambient intro) of very atmospheric industrial metal with lots of keyboards sounding like on an OST for some old sci-fi movie, and lyrics (mostly) in German. The quality of recording is not perfect, yet completely listenable and fairly good for a first demo EP. There's no reliable info about the band at all, except for they had 3 members and claimed to come from the planet Mars. Perhaps that was the reason why they've released only one EP and then disappeared without a trace: they had to leave the Earth and return to their home planet for some reason ;) It's quite sad, actually, because this EP was very promising, and it would be great to hear at least one full-length album from them.

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Bring Me Eternity - "Draw The Echo" [2013]

Artist: Bring Me Eternity

Title: Draw The Echo

Genre: Symphonic/Progressive Metal

Country: France
Year: 2013

Track List:

1. Road Of Dreams
2. Deception
3. Vanity
4. Silent Memory
5. Pride Of A World

Bring Me Eternity are an young female-fronted metal band from Grenoble, formed in 2011 and released their 1st EP in autumn 2013.On their facebook page, they list their influences as "Within Temptation, System Divide, Epica, Betraying The Martyrs, Delain, Amaranthe", but I'd rather compare them to another progressive/sympho-metal band with a somewhat similar name and a rather good-looking vocalist - Echoes Of Eternity. Both bands put a lot of effort into their work, but their song structures are a bit needlessly complex because of that. However "Draw The Echo" still sounds quite good, considering it's only a debut release. The production is crystal clear, and Lyriel Bena (the vocalist) has a nice voice. The music itself is a mix between standard gothic/symphonic metal, and so-called "modern metal"/metalcore. All the lyrics are in English, which is a plus for me - because, as you know, I don't like Francophone metal bands in general.

As of now, Bring Me Eternity are virtually unknown outside France, and even there not many people have heard about them. They're an actively touring band, though, so this situation may change in the near future. They certainly deserve to be more known outside France as well, and I hope this entry will help it at least a bit. By the way, "Draw The Echo" is now officially available off bandcamp for "pay-what-you-want" price (I personally gave 3€ to the band, but you can get it for free, if you wish), so I think it'd be OK to post it here too:

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P.S. Am I only one who thinks that Lyriel has very beautiful legs? Seems like she thinks so too(at least judging from her photos, she apparently loves to wear very short dresses, and prefers mini shorts for her stage appearances):

Velvet Seal - "Lend Me Your Wings" [2009]

Artist: VelvetSeal

Title: Lend Me Your Wings

Genre: Symphonic Metal

Country: Hungary
Year: 2009

Track List:

1. Opening
2. Lend Me Your Wings
3. The One
4. Desperati
5. Torn Within
6. Where Statues Cry
7. The Divine Comedy
8. Freefall
9. The Tragic Overture

The second demo of this Hungarian band has received very favorable reviews on Encyclopaedia Metallum, so I decided to check out their one and only full-length album, released an year after the aforementioned demo. It turned out to be good symponic metal with female vocals, but nothing really original. All the lyrics are in English, which was a bit disappointing to me - because in case with Hungarian metal bands (such as  Alhana, Dalriada, Obsidian Shell, etc.) I prefer them singing in their native language. Hovewer, Gabi (the vocalist) can sing pretty well, and some of the tracks (including the title one) are quite catchy. So, to put it in short: "Lend Me Your Wings" isn't a masterpiece, but it's certainly worth listening, if you're a fan of female-fronted metal. Won't recommend it to my fellow fans of Hungarian music, though, because this album has nothing specifically Hungarian in it.

There are official videos for "Lend Me Your Wings" and "The Tragic Overture", which you can easily find on youtube. But I didn't like them that much, and would suggest to watch this live video instead:


See also this video of Gabi performing with some other band, singing in Hungarian:

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Blackthorn - "Codex Archaos" [2011]

Artist: Blackthorn

Title: Codex Archaos

Genre: Symphonic Metal

Country: Russia
Year: 2011

Track List:

1. Divination in Blood
2. Vehemence Came as Anodyne
3. Nemesis Incarnation
4. Gorgon the Ascendant
5. Emptysis Kiss
6. Arria Marcella
7. Posthumous Passion Ephemera
8. Dismalediction and the Remedy
9. Серебряный Ключ (Silver Key)
10. Hexshadow Turned to Flesh
11. Bestial Satan of Grotesque Beauty
12. The Fading Ceremony

Since I'm continuing to post my favourites in female-fronted metal from the Eastern Europe, let's not go past one of the most well-known all-female metal bands in Russia. Blackthorn were formed in 2004 in Moscow, and released their debut album, "Gossamer Witchcraft", in 2009. After some lineup changes, they released their second (and the last up to date) full-length album "Codex Archaos" in 2011. It differs significantly from their debut. While "Gossamer Witchcraft" was symphonic/gothic metal with some black metal overtones, "Codex Archaos" is certainly more heavier, and has more elements of melodic death metal (even the cover is more suitable for a death metal album than for a gothic one). It has been described as a "dramatic metal", but I don't think we need to invent any new "genres" just for one album.

By the standards of Russian metal scene, "Codex Archaos" is close to 10/10, and even by the world's standards it's no less than 8/10. However a lot of long-term fans of Blackthorn didn't like the sound which the band has presented on "Codex Archaos", compared to their earlier works. Well, that's a matter of personal preferences, but what certainly can't be disputed - this album is very well produced. They even made a video for the song "Hexshadow Turned To Flesh" (which isn't my favourite on "Codex Archaos", though; if I were in their place, I'd rather choose "Emptysis Kiss" or "Vehemence Came As Anodyne"):

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