Fucked Up Songs, although it appears as the second full length of this Russian duo, is actually a new version of the previous Neverending Pain, which faithfully follows the lineup keeping in common even the cover. In addition, although the tracks have been revised, the material contained therein was composed almost ten years ago, so it is difficult to determine how indicative it can be of the current inclinations of the band. The sound, however, sways between gothic and death doom, with a greater propensity towards the first, thanks to a propensity to a melancholic catchiness, but with superior effectiveness in dealing with the second, since the best song of the lot is by detachment the final Blindness, which not coincidentally is the one that more than others sinks more firmly the roots in the extreme doom, with its slow pace supported by evocative keyboards and a beautiful guitar work. At Eternity’s Gate is also in the same vein, another excellent track in which the excellent growl covers with darkness the painful textures, much better than with the clean vocals. The rest of the album travels instead on coordinates more canonically gothic, evoking at times something of the first Evereve, but with a dramatic vein and a vocal emphasis much lower, offering however valuable songs like Skotodini, Soulless and Paranoia. Even if it’s not a must-have work, Fucked Up Songs (not a great title, by the way, the previous one was better) shows at times the good compositional quality of the duo composed by Alextos and Yanis and, considering what was said in the introductory phase about the period of composition of the album, it’s not excluded that a possible next work could show a different or more defined face of Distressful Project.

2016 – Darknagar Records