Akrasia

Being totally honest – I’ve never listened to Revelations of Rain music even knowing that they’ve been around for more than a decade. Now the chance had been given to me to grab their newest CD to listen to. So I'm dropping these lines as the music flows.

Let’s find what “Akrasia” stands for. First of all the term “akrasia” actually is the state of acting against your better judgment. It is when you do one thing even though you know you should do something else. Loosely translated, you could say that akrasia is procrastination or a lack of self-control. Akrasia is what prevents you from following through on what you set out to do. Interesting, huh?

And what does this Russian band offer on their fifth full-length album? 8 songs, one hour of well-played atmospheric melodic doom, yet with some portion of melodic-death metal influences. Calm harmonized melodies entwine with strong distorted riffs, double-bass drumming and clean guitar arpeggios. Traces of classic English doom scene as well as Swedish one can be clearly seen. And Revelations of Rain skillfully combine these elements.

Speaking of vocals - I almost never listen to bands that sing not in English. Don’t know why, it’s just me. I’d always choose English above any other languages (related to metal music). So hearing Russian lyrics is quite confusing for me, but it’s the question of the choice and the band made it long time ago. So it’s up to them. Needless to mention that vocals on this album is well-done, one can hear all the stuff we used to hear on our favorite bands CDs – growls, narrative parts and whispers. And the job is done. BTW vocal delivery made me think of well-known pagan black-metal band from Ukraine – Nokturnal Mortum.

Overall it’s a good album from Russian doomy veterans and I do believe that die-hard fans of the band will like this recording a priori. But it’s not totally my cup of tea. While all the needed elements for perfect album are there, something is missing for me.