My two favorite sub-genres of metal are funeral doom and depressive black metal. This band from the Ukraine plays a dark and dirty form of black metal that moves at a slow throb. I appreciate the very deliberate pulse which is a nice break from blast beats all the time and forces them to write songs. This is more at a Burzum like tempo and while what they do works really well it feels like it need some variation approaching the end of the second song. The vocals are a mid range scowl. There sounds like there is distorted filter put over them or they could have just really tapped into some cool cvlt production tactics. It makes me think of interviews I have seen with Varg saying "Give me the worst mic to use".
"The Frame" kind of gets lost in the fuzz the songs tries to plow through sometimes speeding up into blast beats. While they are more feral on this one I would not say this evokes a depressive feeling. The guitar might be creepier and more melodic than your average blasty mcnasty black metal that is normally speeding past you , but I feel the album is beginning to sound very mono-chrome. I can see where this is different enough to gain some attention in under ground circles. By the time it picks up for the more savage "the Vampire" things have already begun to become a blur. On second listen I could hear a more subtle angular Deathspell Omega quality lurking under it.
The title track really didn't blow me away. It worked off of a similar pulsing throb that is just enough out of time to seem like it's dripping out of speakers. I think the layered guitars would come across stronger with better production. But that is going to be a selling point to some. While I give these guys enough credit to say the are not just blending in with the blast beaten masses the are not the first project I have heard run with Burzum in this direction. I'll be generous and round it up to a 7.
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