Apathy, darkness and depression are the reported lyrical themes for this duo from Russia, and this is apparent in abundance in this latest release, ‘Что помнит лес’
Elijah and Kolodum collaborate with smoothness and precision, and create a whole mystical journey from the opening bars of ‘Безмолвная пустота’ to the final haunting chords of ‘Чистилище’. The whole beast is built around a chilling melody and it expresses the passion with which the album has been composed with. The keyboards are executed with clinical precision and the vocals appear perfectly distant, all building to create the wonder and curiosity which absorbs the soul.
The six tracks all inject a certain melancholy and ambience, and the tracks are marathonic in their structure, with all but the opening and closing tracks being 7 minutes or more.
‘Поглощённыйi’ is the shorter of the marathons but it doesn’t deliver with any less emotion. ‘Угасающие воспоминания’ is characteristic, and is eerie in its aura, whilst ‘В потоках отчаяния’ and ‘Не продолжит’ are both 9 minute behemoths which are cold and sorrowful in the arrangement.
To say that the whole Darkeater world is controlled by just 2 individual souls, is impressive, and they conceive and nurture their creations to the point of verging on journeys of biblical proportions. This is black metal which sits on the atmospheric end of the dark spectrum and if you are stimulated by bands such as The Ruins Of Beverast, Negura Bunget, Blut Aus Nord, or even Burzum’s ‘Filosofem’, then you are either more than aware of Darkeater’s work, or you definitely need to familiarise yourself with it without delay
(8/10 Phil Pountney)
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