Unlike Raventale, Somnolent started from Odessa as a full-fledged funeral band and then moved to less mournful shores; their debut came with the recording of a live demo in their hometown, including a few tracks that anticipated the content of the full-length Monochromes Philosophy released in 2008. Somnolent is not a particularly important band in the genre’s economy, as that work can be considered above sufficiency only because attitude and consistent writing manage to make up for obvious performance deficiencies; talking about it, however, can help to understand certain short-circuits that go on between those who comment on albums and musicians, judged in this case regardless for a moniker that paves the way for those who believe, with much optimism, that they are not only competent but even witty, overshadowing for better or worse the work of the Ukrainian boys. And, indeed, those desirable technical improvements manifest themselves in Renaissance Unraveling, too bad that the whole thing is channeled into a post metal sludge soup that is neither meat nor fish, possessing not an ounce of the spontaneity of Monochromes Philosophy. Thus one loses a funeral band with decent potential to get in return one devoted to an anonymous “modern” metal, but equally ignored by most.

2011 – Slow Burn Records