Yet another Russian one man band shows up on the now rather crowded funeral death doom scene. Thanataur, as far as we know, should be at his official debut step with the moniker Without Dreams, and certainly not intimidated by the thing, since Rejected By Angel, Betrayed By Demon consists of only two tracks but the total duration well over an hour. This work can be taken as an emblem of how, not always, to do everything by oneself turns out to be an advantage: the album from the purely compositional point of view is definitely valid, in the light of the leaden atmospheres but always imbued with melody that the musician from Ekaterinburg puts on the plate; unfortunately, all this is not constantly supported by an instrumental technique up to the mark, especially in the lead guitar passages that, if entrusted to more skilled hands, could have made a real difference. So the record offers the best in the roughest moments, when a good growl overhangs heavy riffs adequately supported by keyboards, while in the other bangs, including the piano ones, the execution appears so scholastic to make everything like a good demo and nothing more. On the positive side, it’s worth noting that, when the sound moves on territories similar to Comatose Vigil and Ea, Thanataur is able to produce with ease moments that are certainly evocative, which really makes you regret others structured in a too minimal or approximate way. For a fan of the genre, more inclined by nature to pass over certain imperfections, Rejected By Angel, Betrayed By Demon will still be a pleasant work, but the same can not occur for those who land in these shores looking for more formal aspects than purely emotional. In short, if Thanataur would be able to find a guitarist capable of reproducing at best his good melodic intuitions, or if he himself would make a step forward in this sense, exploiting also in a more appropriate way the production work, the next Without Dreams‘ album could turn out to be much more convincing, even if at the end the listening of Rejected By Angel, Betrayed By Demon gives several moments of funeral doom maybe a little bit rustic in the form, but surely genuine in the intentions and able to touch, even if intermittently, the right chords.

2015 – Endless Winter