ARRIVAL

Over the years Ivan Rozmainsky (Roz Vitalis) has sent me various albums from Russia he felt I should hear, and that is the case with the debut release by Trappist System Trio, who hail from St. Petersburg. The band was formed in 2017 when members of local bands Retrial (Vladimir Kulikov - vocals, guitar) and Vergeltung (Dmitry Prilukov - bass, Evgeny Trefilov - drums) wanted to form a band to play live without backing tracks in a minimalistic configuration but using complex time signatures, uneven bar cycles and improvisation. For this album they brought in guests on some of the tracks; Elena Feneva (keyboards, Sopor), Leonid Perevalov (bass clarinet, Yojo, Roz Vitalis, RMP) and Ivan Rozmainsky (keyboards, Roz Vitalis, RMP).

All the guests take very much a back seat on the album, so even though two of them play together in some well- established bands they fully understand their role here is to just provide some gloss and shine, and let the trio do their stuff. Lyrics are in English, and while Kulikov may not be the greatest singer in the world, the music is perfect for his style. While it is right to think of this as progressive, this is far more post metal and experimental in approach, with the keyboard players in the background and jagged metallic constructs being the order of the day. The production is quite dry, and as one would expect with a power trio there is no room for anyone to hide and each of the musicians takes the lead role when the time is right. This is far more metallic than many will expect, yet is quite different to what is normally thought of as being prog metal, with aspects of the likes of Cardiacs while Red Hot Chilli Peppers can also be thought of as an influence, along with some mathrock. This is far more accessible than much of the music I hear from Russia and is certainly worth seeking out on Bandcamp.