I am often curious as to the mentality behind solo projects. Is it a case that the artist in question does not play well with others? Are they a bit of a dictator? Is it simply that they can’t bear to share the fruits of their labour with anyone else? Phillip Skobelin is the talent in question here with his project Tears of Mankind; a Gothic Melodic doom band for which he writes, plays and records everything, (however, he also plays a mean saxophone, although that does not make an appearance on this album). ‘Memoria’ is the fourth full length release under this banner, and the first for three years.

Having recently heard a demo by Skobelin’s other band, noisy Russian Death Metallers ‘N.O.S.P.A.’, I was expecting Tears of Mankind to be slightly more to the aggressive end of the Doom canon, yet the end result couldn’t be much further from that. This is tuneful, thoughtful and atmospheric stuff, forever changing pace and meticulously crafted, yet there is definitely something missing. Once the obligatory atmospheric yet largely pointless intro track is done, (pleasant though it is), opening song ‘In The Embrace Of Eternal Sunshine’ begins with a light lilting tone and a warmth that befits the title, before the guitars chime in with a sound akin to their labelmates The Morningside. Skobelin’s voice switches effectively between a purposeful bark to a deep and almost threatening clean vocal. The use of synths are beautifully understated, giving an ethereal quality to the overall sound rather than just blundering forth with all electronics ablaze as is the wont of some bands. ‘Sunshine’ particularly comes to life in the final couple of minutes, with a simple but driving guitar riff that really captures the attention and reminds me of mid 90’s My Dying Bride in the overall approach to composition. ‘Deadly Desire’ once again is brought to life by solid riffs, with a pace and style that brings to mind Draconian’s ‘Where Lovers Mourn’.

Whilst it never actually gets boring, the album does fail to live up to the promise of the opening tracks. Certainly there are enough changes in style and approach to theoretically hold the interest, yet I found that as the album progresses it does get rather wearing on the patience and by the time we reach the 2nd part of the album, (there are two clear movements on ‘Memoria’, the first in English and the 2nd in Russian), enthusiasm has waned considerably. This could be that by this point the music itself has lost a lot of its early nuances and creativity, and certainly ‘Память’ is a bit of a plod through, with Skobelin singing in a very clean, very pedestrian manner. There is a slight return to form for the final track ‘Вино Памяти’, which despite its difficult beginnings morphs into an atmospheric guitar driven ride through a rainy forest.

‘Memoria’ really is an album of two halves. The first part of it has some excellent moments and really does showcase Skobelin’s versatility as a songwriter, composer and musician, however the 2nd half I found to be a real struggle. I did wonder if this was anything to do with it being entirely in Russian, with no English interpretation of the song titles to give me a clue what it was all about, but no, it is pure and simply the music itself which fails to inspire. I think that with a track or two edited down, this could have been a much more complete album, but instead it feels like a special edition DVD of one of your favourite films where numerous extra scenes have been added in, and as such, somewhere along the way the flow has been lost, and that’s exactly how this album takes you by half distance. ‘Memoria’ is well worth a listen, but it’s a memory that fast fades when you stop.

(6.5  Lee Kimber) 

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