Day: December 18, 2017

After about a year, Max Molodtsov is back with his solo project Sorrowful Land. I had already spoken more than well of his debut full length Of Ruins…, which showed off superb qualities both from a compositional and an executive point of view, even going beyond the good things he had already done with his main band, the gothic Edenian. On the occasion of the long-distance work I had pointed out a devotion rather marked against When Noting Remains (with the imprimatur resulting from the participation as a guest of Peter Laustsen) and all in all with this long ep entitled Where The Sullen Waters Flow does not seem that the coordinates have changed much and, I want to reiterate, this is not absolutely to be considered a negative point. In fact, in the three long songs that are close to half an hour in total duration, the Ukrainian multi-instrumentalist confirms the thickness of his natural talent for the composition of music poignant and full of melody never cloying, thanks to a guitar work elegant and sober at the same time. Nothing to object then on this welcome return in a relatively short time (for the habits in use in the genre) with a triptych of songs of great effectiveness among which, in my opinion, stands out the last, The Night Is Darkening Around Me, in which there is a partial shift towards a sound even more linked to the sound of lead guitar, this time with Saturnus and Doom Vs. in the crosshairs. I repeat that the citation of the various references should not be understood as an accusation of derivativeness, but as an attempt to provide an idea of what to expect to those who approach the listening of this work, with the certainty that those who love this kind of music the last of the problems that arises is that of originality, especially when the pathos and intensity are always maintained at the level offered by Where The Sullen Waters Flow. An ep that confirms the name Sorrowful Land as something that goes well beyond the status of futuristic project, being a reality to which we only ask to continue on this path in the future.

2017 – Solitude Productions