The Russians Septic Mind arrive at their third full length in less than a five-year period, maintaining the high standard denoted in the two previous works. Although cataloged under the heading funeral doom, the band composed by the duo Alexander Grigoryev – Michael Nagiev is the author of a very multifaceted sound and often aimed at interesting avant-garde sounds that go well beyond the canonical standards of the genre. Some of these digressions turn out to be undoubtedly well conceived, in particular the electronic pulsions of the title track and the rhythmic accelerations of Blizost’ Kontakta, while the heavy dissonances of the third track Genocide prove to be more sterile. In the end, the best song of the lot is just the one that most adheres to the stylistic patterns of the genre, the beautiful final track Na Poroge Peremen that winds with its characteristic atmospheres slowed down to a crawl, but full of melancholic guitar scores particularly appreciated by those who, like me, is not inclined by nature to listen to funeral with too many digressions on the theme. Rab remains an excellent work because, apart from the already mentioned Genocide, the remaining half an hour of the album shows both the undoubted compositional skills of the two musicians, who still have the merit of trying with some success an alternative approach to the matter, and the valuable guitar touch of Alexander Grigoryev that, in my opinion, would deserve to be exploited by accentuating with greater conviction the melodic propensities. Besides, the Septic Mind, in this their will to free themselves in some way from the stylistic elements of the genre, show an appreciable consistency since their first releases and this can only be in favor of their artistic integrity. A welcome confirmation, then, even if I remain of the opinion that this band has the potential to touch much higher peaks than those reached in the past and in this last occasion.

2014 – Solitude Productions