Квітів Знедолених Берегів – За небокрай мрій

183451384790649788o38qSuDocWe’ve encountered a wonderfully diverse form of two types of metal from Eastern Europe over the past few years, in particular coming from Russia and the Ukraine.  Folk metal of the pagan variety, and doom metal, the latter often delivered to us by Russian-born Solitude Productions.  We could go off on a number of bands, but just click that link there and start discovering on your own so we can focus on this one-man, melancholic casket of suffering called Квітів Знедолених Берегів.  If you can’t read Cyrillic, that’s Ukrainian, and knowing Russian pretty fluently (editor), it seems to translate to roughly “Flowers of Miserable Shores”.  Since a few Slavic languages don’t use definite articles, feel free to toss them in there as you see fit.  Interestingly, as soon as we scoped the cover it was evident this was going to be doom closer to the funeral variety, in fact it looks quite similar to the demo EP White Roses White Coffin by Mistress of the Dead we reviewed long ago, what with its reliance on sepia-drenched tones that look like a tintype.  That was mainly coincidence, however, and either way the suffering this man must have experienced in life to create such blissful agony is our focus today.

 

 

For someone who’s literally come out of nowhere, Квітів Знедолених Берегів has got it together.  In preparation for casting a veil of mournful anguish over a world of Young Werthers with guns on the ready for suicide, he already has an impressive website in three languages and this here, one of the greatest demos we’ve ever received.  За небокрай мрій, which you could translate to something like “Over the Horizon of Dreams”, is merely two songs long, though each is almost ten minutes in length, but it’s filled in this small amount of space with more atmosphere than a full album of some of the most respected doom bands out there, ahem, Sleep, ahem ahem.   The production is high, the writing masterful, it’s more full of promise than the end of the human race.  It’s something like being on morphine for about a year and then cutting it cold.  Why do we say that?

 

Because we need more of this please.  This is beyond the usual demo expectations, these two tracks here.  Квітів Знедолених Берегів crafts a beautiful form of doom, it’s an epic, lyrical dirge, a lamentation for centuries of human uselessness.  One noticeable feature are the variety of layers, which is primarily because he often relies on a melodic approach instead of the usual monolith of riff that comes crashing down.  There’s more to this than mere riff, but riffs there are.  The first track is the true showcase, “У обіймах (Тихі води)” (roughly “In the Arms of Still Water”), with a soul-rending acoustic line dragging most of the action, coupled with multiple layers of riff, solos, and let’s not forget the lyrical delivery.  Spoken word, clean tones with beautiful passion, and throat-tearing misanthropy, all mixed together, perfectly.  It seems he may have a classical background as well, evidenced by his careful usage of scales and even piano work.  The second track, “Якби зорі…” (roughly “If the stars…”), though not as impressive, still showcases an impressive density you normally won’t find in this type of doom.  Quite often ‘atmospheric’ is thrown around as though it has meaning, when it often does not.  If anything it’s usually an excuse for a lack of material, whereas here this is all about atmosphere.  Sit back, lace some of your tea with opium, and cry yourself to sleep for about a thousand years.  He even has it available for free download on his site, so do yourself a favor and check it out.

 

Квітів Знедолених Берегів Official Youtube

Written by Stanley Stepanic

Квітів Знедолених Берегів – За небокрай мрій
Self-Released
4.5 / 5