When we talk about post metal it’s always good to remember that, in my opinion, we are not dealing with a real genre but, rather, with an oblique way of interpreting the different extreme nuances of metal that intersect with ambient and with the most cultured forms of rock, the consequence of which is a musical approach that can be now aggressive and suffocating, now more ethereal and evocative. The Russians Endless Ocean rely on this second solution, offering eighty minutes of really interesting sounds that have the inevitable defect of paying such a size in a field where the risk of appearing dispersive is around every corner, even when you have the gift of synthesis. Awakening is however a precious work that it would be a pity to ignore only for its excessive length and, after all, the incipit that unravels between female vocals with galasian reminiscences is more than a clue about the value of this proposal: the Moscow quintet debuts on a long distance with a courageous work, perhaps excessive but in many places exciting, demonstrating a compositional impetus without any particular brakes or stylistic boundaries, even if the doom, among the genres of metal, is the most solid base on which to build songs that, in their broad development, branch out in rivulets not always predictable. The clean singing in mother tongue is not exactly the best and this is another point on which Endless Ocean will have to work in the future, but otherwise finding the time to listen to Awakening is not a bad idea.

2021 – Independent