For every day I’ve been jolly, happy and just elated to be alive and breathing, there is a sad enough record by either Solitude Productions or Bad Mood Man Records to help me realize that life is a shitty fucking miserable experience. In this feature, I focus on some of the latest releases from these two Russian sister labels; both purveyors of wrist-slitting, brains blowing, neck-snapping sad metal.  Read on and spread the word…

Alley sure is a strange name for a metal band. Especially if such band dwells in romantic prog rock friendly doom territory. To tell you the truth, if someone had told me that there was band with this name I would have been pretty sure they played some kinda rambunctious metal. Maybe some kinda punk metal hybrid. And I mean, when I think of the word Alley, turbulent images of all the things that can go wrong in alleys come to mind; awful situations like getting gang banged by a bunch of bikers or helping yourself to a nice fix of heroine. And when you christen your first album The Weed (2008), what do you think of? I think of a bunch of moronic stoners worshipping Chris Barnes and retarded bands like Slightly Stoopid or Kottonmouth Kings. Yeah, yikes is about right. Alley like their music slow though, expansive, heavy and progressive, which pretty much means their long songs go through different passages, some heavier than others, some less dense but all, equally slow.

The trio Kauan come from Chelyabinsk and plays pretty romantic folk and spacey doom metal. There is a girl in the ranks, but that doesn’t mean that these dudes go all soft and cheesy on us. Sure, the gothic value is here and yeah, some of the choruses sound like they come from morbid angels, plus there is plenty of piano and a very heavy shoegaze vibe, but there are also black metal vocals and a lot of distortion. Lumikuuro (2007) is Kauan's first album and despite the previous description of their sound, they do not sound like a senseless amalgamation of genres. Songs likes “Savu” are concise and direct, elaborate and lush, with a nice balance between the heaviness of a dumbed down guitar chord and the pastoral imagery of nicely layered keyboard programming. Kauan scores points by not obsessing over the vocals, which seems to be their weakness. Lumikuuro is largely an instrumental record which helps build its mystic effectively.

Blame gothic metal bands and Napalm Records but every time I see a hot chick on the cover of a metal record I am almost certain the music within will suck huge and hairy elephant balls. In most of the cases, the beauty up in the cover is to blame for either sucking ass with their Celine Dion-like vocalisms or with their obsession for gothic fromage.  Not in the case of Ukraine’s miserablists Mournful Gust though, whose sophomore album The Frankess Eve does not feature any gorgerous ladies at the mike. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that their puppy dog sadness and pitiful moroseness comes decorated with beautiful yet agonizing guitar melodies, rough and clean (yet surprisingly good) vocal lines, and a choice of garments which I don’t support.  There is a lot of violin in this record, and yet, I am not bothered. There is even some flute, but believe me, you won’t feel like a pufter just by listening to The Frankness Eve. Somehow Mournful Gust’s folksy vibes ain’t that dividing.

I am no expert in Bad Mood Man’s catalogue but after checking out a handful of their releases I am quite certain that Sanctus Infernum are a bit of a departure for the label.  Here is a band sounding off a pretty nifty and mighty blend of black, doom and death metal. Think of Sanctus Infernum as a handful of old psychos, too crippled by drugs, alcohol and age to play fast enough so they’ve had to slow down their music to flexible speed. Their self-titled debut features great cover artwork, and more importantly, packs eight lethal tunes of pure ugly metal. “Waking the Dead” is cool hard rock with a monster at the mike and the ten-minute long “The Journey Back” even features an acoustic guitar interlude that’s just an inch short of Paco de Lucia. Sanctus Infernum features the vocal abilities of Marc Anderson, a man that did a three-year stint with Manilla Road at the turn of the millennium. Whatever approach he had back then, I doubt is the same one he is using now. Anderson’s deep guttural belch is pretty fucking skillful. I am surprised this band hasn’t received more exposure in the States.

Like Mournful Gust, Raventale hails from Ukraine. Unlike Mournful Gust, Raventale is a one man black doom project that’s limited by the constrictions of working individually. To me, that’s an advantage. And I think mastermind Astaroth would agree. That’s because lush sounds, folksy vibes, flutes and violins, gothic aura, arias and complicated arrangements repel me. Bounded by his musical reach Raventale bases its melodies around simple arrangements and sustained guitar notes, steady mid-to-slow tempo beats, grandfatherly black metal vocals, atmospheric keyboard work, and even a church organ. The result is a pretty nice mixture of baroque music, black metal and doom metal. Don’t be afraid by the ‘baroque’ part, Unlike most musicians who aspire to compose grand music Raventale makes it seem easy. Long Passed Days (2008) is the second effort of this talented man. Fans of Agalloch must check this out.  

Some band names really make me fringe. Take Moscow’s Abstract Spirit for instance, what is it with their name? I mean, isn’t a spirit abstract anyway? You can’t touch it, you can’t see it, you can’t fuck it, therefore it has no shape and is intangible. Its existence is even questionable and sure as all hell, is difficult to understand or fathom. At least it is for me.  So naming your band Abstract Spirit is kinda like naming your band something like Rounded Wheels, Hard Concrete, or Flabby Silicone. Maybe I am thinking too much about that stuff. Or maybe I am just bored. Liquid Dimensions Change is Abstract Spirit’s 2008 debut and serves up funeral doom in typical fashion. And that’s fucking boring. Unless, of course, you like eleven-minute songs formed by ultra deep guttural vocals, one beat drums, downtuned, downtempo guitars, piano and a couple of leads here and there.

I am a regular user of Metal Archives. I consider it the best and most complete metal resource / database on the internet. Sure, there are some metallish-bands that don’t make the cut for not being metal enough, but hey, what can you do? I was surprised I didn’t find Opaque Lucidity in it. This is metal enough. More metal than a bunch of gothic metal bands that’s for sure. Maybe no one has bothered to include them in. Or maybe their disjointed fragmented tunes are too un-metallish. It sure is very difficult to find the beat, tap your foot or bang your head to it. Come the third song, it all makes sense. Just because you have a vocalist emitting a death metal grunt doesn’t mean your band is metal. Even if the name of the band is a contradiction or an absurdity of sorts. Opaque Lucidity sounds like random ideas blended in. The atmospheric results isn’t nearly a trip but a black and white picture of something really boring. Kinda like the eye passing as the cover artwork.

There are two things about this album that are tipping me off about the potential shitiness of it. First, there is the issue with the cover. Notice I didn’t say ‘artwork’. That’s because there really is no art to telling some hot lady to stand romantic in the middle of a field. Maybe the photo was taken in a big park, in which case there is something really mundane and cheap about it. The second issue is the band’s name. I have been listening to metal music since I was a young pup and never, and I mean neevvveeerr, have I encountered a good band with the word ‘tears’ in their name. Maybe that’s because bands that use that word tend to be romantic and gothic. It makes sense, but I don’t particularly dig much of either. Tears of Mankind hail from Russia and the fancily titled Silent Veil of My Doom delivers solid track after solid track of gothic doom. That’s until “Without You”, a piano ballad featuring some chick singing makes an entrance. It sounds like she is out of one of those Napalm Records bands.  

I guess Ukrainian guys are loners. Like Raventale, Darktrance is a one man project. Unlike Raventale, Darktrance is a much more intense, aggressive and nasty affair. Mastermind Deimos (Dmitry Gubsky to his friends) has created Ghosts in the Shells (2008), a debut that mixes the mechanized sounds of a drum machine, with the hysterical screams of a hades dweller and the guitars of an undecided player who doesn’t know whether to shred, destroy or be subtle. The best example of aural confusion I’ve heard is “Black Sun”, where the song goes from average black metal, to cheap orchestration to a piano solo that’s worth a couple of chuckles and back to black metal. The puzzling aspect of Darktrance is evident, there are extremes at play here, and they aren’t working together. Evidently, Deimos is an ambitious man and is yet to find the limits of his talents and creativity.