TruthYep this one is Russian and I will not be embarking upon a track by track listing. However translation online tells me that the actual album in English would be entitled ‘Knowledge Of Darkness’ and I had been informed that the band name is Truth. So let’s look for some enlightenment in the music from this debut album of suicidal and depressive black metal by a duo who go by the simple initials of M. and N.

Don’t go looking for a quick fix here as from the cold and eerie instrumental opener you have a full 69 minutes worth of music to take you to death’s dark shroud and it’s plenty of time for those pills to kick in whilst you think about the futility of life’s existence. As you draw a ‘Breath Of Consciousness’ the music opens up and hones in from this ghostly opening segment. It’s bleak, dark and dismal but in all the right ways and when the vocals scream and shriek in they are tempered and as hostile as life itself, screeching with indignity and black and corpse-painted as one could possibly conceive. Drums are evidently programmed but clatter away and drive the pace here and although production is not as full bodied as it could be it suitably accentuates the sound with a cold and utterly lifeless feel about it.

Listening to the downbeat and utterly depressive tones within the music it is easy to identify as it is very similar to the funereal sermon of Xasthur and the bleakness and nihilism is quickly soaked up leaving you enshrouded in a very familiar place. Moving between segments of hate filled screeching to ones of slow funeral doom like dirges this will no doubt destroy listeners not enthused by negativity and disenchantment and for those that are willing to take the trip there are many depths to plunder within this and it serves as a very fulfilling portal into nothingness as it sucks your life out of you. It’s music for late at night reflection or long listless rainy days when you feel somewhat trapped and unable to face the outside world. There is plenty of atmosphere about this but it’s as stale as the last breath escaping, with very little in the way of light seeping through the crepuscular shadows.

Tracks are prone to be long and set about really putting the nails in the coffin, for example one with the perfectly translated title of ‘Hopelessness’ runs for an almost harrowing 12 minutes. Still it’s all handled well and it is easy to find yourself consumed by the tracks rather than bored by them and this has stood up to repeated listens since it arrived. Care and attention has also been made on the album design and artwork here and although everything about Истина screams obscurity at you the album is definitely worthy of discovery and spreading its contagious touch further than the self-released status will no doubt propel it. If you like Xasthur and are missing Malefic’s touch this is well worth seeking out.

(7.5/10 Pete Woods)

http://istina-bm.bandcamp.com/releases