Day: November 10, 2016

Reaching their fifth full length, the Russians Otkroveniya Dozhdya (or Revelations Of Rain in English) give to the fans of death doom a work of high thickness, able to encompass the best of the extreme scene of the music of destiny has offered in recent years. Compared to the previous Obmanchivaya Dobrodetel, which already stood out as a magnificent record, the band from Podolsk hardens not a little a sound that found its foundations in the most melodic essence of the genre (My Dying Bride, Saturnus, Swallow The Sun, Ea) drawing on elements of dissonance that refer to Esoteric, to certain openings referable to Monolithe, as well as the dark nihilistic nature of Comatose Vigil. Of course, here there is more of a funeral attitude than the real form, since the rhythms are almost never suffocating but if anything the structures of the songs are, which remain grim even if pervaded by beautiful melodies. Just this being algid and at the same time emotional is the strong point of Akrasia, a work that at the first impact leaves more than one perplexity and to which, therefore, it is absolutely necessary to give the time to grow, listening after listening, day after day. Then, maybe because after three years we got used to albums sung in all languages, the fact that Otkroveniya Dozhdya continue to use their native language is not a problem anymore, on the contrary, maybe it allows them to increase the impact and the conviction with which they propose themselves to the foreign audience. As in Obmanchivaya Dobrodetel, the predominant element is the lead guitar of Yuriy Ryzhov, able to churn out almost continuously beautiful and painful melodies, supported by the massive growl of the founder (and guitarist) Ilya Remizov and, except for the ordinary instrumental Vmesto Tysyachi Slov, Akrasia is a treasure chest full of precious jewels, among which the most brilliant are a masterful V Grusti I Radosti and the final coupling Koren Vsekh Bed and Na Snezhnykh Krylyakh. Shadier than its predecessor, Otkroveniya Dozhdya‘s latest album appears deeper and able to stand up to prolonged listening, showing itself, in any case, as yet another magnificent birth of a Russian scene composed of a multitude of bands able to elevate funeral death doom to its highest levels.

2016 – Solitude Productions