This three piece from Minsk have released their third album of crushing sludgy doom on Aesthetic Death Records. Loping, lumbering riffs clamber over thunderous drums and rib rattling bass as Reido spin tales of despair and desolation. Just what is needed for these tumultuous times. There are large elements of post rock in the distorted guitar lines and swooping cinematic ambiance. There is plenty here for bellbottomed Doomheads and shoegazing freaks alike. “Deathwave” the instrumental opener brings to mind the special effects of 70’s sci fi ala Doctor Who and Space 1999 mixed with the Lovecraftian horror or Event Horizon. The riff creeps up within the space electronica before segueing into “The Serpents Mission” this malformed alien is a creeper not a pouncer. The riffs build and build whilst a guitar rings out to highlight the flashes in the darkness. The artwork which accompanies the album depicts a foreboding mass of swampy grey green tendrils and fauna suffocating the pages like Swamp Thing reimagined by Dante.
The vocals are as deep and dread filled as the music – unhurried but all conquering. When Alexander Kachar whispers the opening stanza of “Dirt FIlls My Mouth” he invokes a creepily Gothic air before a mighty doom riff is unleashed. A proper neck breaker of a riff this one. Matt Pike would be proud.
Reido have been inspired by the writings of Buddhist Monk Je Tsong – kha-pa. He finished the writing of Lamrin Chen Mo – The Great treatise on the stages of the path to enlightenment in 1402 and this spiritual tome helped the band create “Liminal” for this album.
Strings are utilised in this tale of endings and new beginnings adding a sense of melancholy into the funerary lament. You would think that such inspiration would bring with it hope and the celebration of new beginnings. Not so for Reido “They will welcome the child’s birth. To let him suffer on earth again” Never has reincarnation sounded so bleak.
The title track is another instrumental piece made up of radio transmissions, synth strings, a throbbing sub bass drone and what sounds like an alarm going off on the bridge on some distant starship. Soporific and anxiety building in equal measures.
The band may come from Belarus but they certainly take their cues from much further east. From the translation of their name Reido meaning “Degree Zero” to the aforementioned Buddhist scripture this band certainly look to Eastern philosophy for their twisted darkened take on life.
The final track “Vast Emptiness, No Holiness” features words from “The Heart Sutra” and also writings by 4th Century Monk Bodhidharma. Unlike the positivity of the chant of the Sutra Reido twist the main theme of “Form is Empty” to portray a bleak, freezing, desolate state where hope is abandoned in embrace of the void. Imagine the complete flipside of a positive Shelter track.
Reido have taken the teachings of the far east and melded them with the aching despair of the modern world and created an album of beautifully desolate music that touches the soul. The artwork completes the package and I look forward to discovering more of their music.
(8.5/10 Matt Mason)
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