SREDOKRESIE

Although not too deep, their music is a lot of fun. Melodic clean electric guitar solo's, basslines sticking out throughout the record on a regular basis, folky interludes with Russian national folk instruments, drumming that quite possibly is the most "metal" part of this record, which I can not really put into the Progressive Metal category, and vocals close to the style of the most famous Russian vocalist Kipelov - all that adds to the joyful, pleasant mood of the record. What distances this record from, for example, groups like Equilibrium and Finntroll who aren't progressive in any way is the songwriting. The songwriting for this record is one of the finest in its category - although most of the songs follow a specific mood and melodies sound quite similar to each other, you can see that the musicians are not merely technically skilled but also inspired by many things, quite possibly nature of their native land being one of them, and can actually write music(Dream Theater, take notes!)without highlighting their technical prowess. Keyboards are being played often enough to help to set the atmosphere and add to the progressiveness of the sound in general. The vocals are done mostly in Russian, more specifically Old Slavonic, and also English, with a funny accent to it, which makes one come to the conclusion that it is, in 90% of cases, more sincere to sing in your native tongue rather than try to accomplish something by struggling. One of my least favourite points is the female vocals on this album. They aren't just annoying - they are simply mortifying! Perhaps, this is some acquired taste I just don't understand but I can't help cringing to myself everytime she opens her mouth, which, fortuitously, doesn't happen too often on this record. Even the attempt at "extreme singing", very Finntroll-styled, sounds more appealing than Marina Sokolova's singing. To me, as a person from a Slavonic background, it is, however, refreshing to hear vocals in Russian, which I don't hear too often due to my music preferences.

What there is left to conclude is that by avoiding this album a usual progger isn't missing a masterpiece. However, fans of groups alongside Mago De Oz should discover this group, which could be of some interest to fans of Art Folk fans. Good, but non-essential.

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