Close your eyes. Now say the words out loud, “Ghost of the Russian Empire.” Are you getting a warm, fuzzy feeling? Or maybe a cold, haunting melancholy. Yeah, I thought so. Me too. Now listen to this band and tell me if they sound exactly like the music that floated between your ears when you said their name out loud.The season this band evokes is winter. As fantastic as they are, you may want to go ahead and save the repeat-listens for those colder months; unless, that is, you are living in a location where that is currently the case. Maybe a rainy day, however, would be sufficient to evoke the gloom this record conveys. Even the graphics on the CD insert continue along the theme of bleak destruction.
There is so much reverb here that it sounds like they recorded in an echo chamber, but somehow, for them, it completely works. This is more than the end of the Russian Empire; this is the end of the world: “two days of metal rain/a volcano’s worth of cinder/to melt out evil schemes...all will perish in flames.”
The entire album feels constructed to usher in the end on a grand scale. The lyrics aren’t necessarily decipherable, but I was not surprised when I read the words. There are no distinct vocal melodies here; it feels as though the lyrics were somewhat of an afterthought. This is an album about the music, the experience of being drawn into destruction, and they perfectly evoke the feeling that the end is near.
Review by Shana Scudder
Click here to buy:
0 comments:
Post a Comment