Darkeater - Иней чёрного рассвета

DARKEATER - Иней чёрного рассвета (WOLFSPELL Records - CD 2015)

Damn, for years I could not find anything on the Russian metal scene, what would be really worth of my interest. But this year I discovered five or six really awesome death metal bands from there, as well as maybe one or two black metal acts. And here’s another one! One, which is in Wolfspell Records roster and you know that I was recently playing and reviewing quite few releases from this label. “Иней чёрного рассвета”, what means “Black Dawn’s Rime”, is what I’m playing now and yes, I must say that I like it a lot. It is actually a debut album from this Russian duo and sadly my knowledge about Darkeater is limited to what I can read on Metal Archives. But I will want to know more, defintiely! I guess the best thing about “Иней чёрного рассвета” is that this album sort of walks against the current tides on the black metal scene. I mean now everyone pretends to be fuckin satanic and occult, presenting specific image of almost ritualistic kind, with candles, skulls, hooded figures, symbols… and it surely looks attractive, but is nothing, but another trend on the scene. In that case Darkeater seems like a band from the previous century, with just two figures standing in the woods and this really nice dark photographs of the nature in the booklet. I really like the simple artwork, but more so, the logo of Darkeater is killer. Great job.

And from the first listen I enjoyed “Иней чёрного рассвета”, even if one can say that it is rather typical depressive black metal, with a strong dark ambient influence. The majority of the music has been played in slow tempo, with music that is soaked in that melancholic, sorrowful atmosphere. The guitars have that characteristic buzzy sound and are limited to hypnotizing, mesmerizing riffing, so do not expect to hear any blasts or aggressive parts. Keyboards add even darker and atmospheric feeling, and are present basically all the time, filling the music in good way… The whole music will remind you Burzum, Vinterriket, Lustre, Krohm and that sort of bands. Yes, “Иней чёрного рассвета” is nothing innovative, it’s nothing groundbreaking, but very solid and I do like this album a lot, mainly for the atmosphere it awakens. The songs are great (even if they may seem to be quite one dimensional), performance and production are good too... Even the dark ambient pieces, which are on “Иней чёрного рассвета” sound great to me! I suppose that many people can dislike such music (dark ambient), calling it boring crap, but I must admit that sometimes I like to play something like this and surely enjoy calm, atmospheric keyboard music, like Burzum, Vinterriket, Mortiis and some other projects. Darkeater’s “Tomhet” (haha) is called “Rhubarb”, which is an Aphex Twin cover, by the way.

So, very enjoyable album from completely unknown band, recommended to the fans of harsh, atmospheric black metal in the old vein.

Final rate: 80/100