Akrasia

On a rainy day, when the skies are just pissing down and there are no signs that the deluge will end soon, what more can a sad sod do than play the fifth album by Russian death-doom metallers Revelations of Rain? At least you can learn something for about an hour without getting wet or the umbrella falling to bits because you forgot to replace it last time the weather was bucketing down. Playing this album first time through, you learn this four-piece band deals in very epic, lumbering melodic fusion death-doom metal that features plenty of crunchy jagged riffs, a harsh feel and a lot of depressive atmosphere.

There's heckuva lot to get through on eight tracks, each of which is at least 6 minutes long and a good half of them at over 7 minutes, so the musicians get stuck right into the doom-n-gloom and stay there, moving through "Altar of Whores" at a pace varying from slow to medium-fast, with a fast blast-beat section or two, and including much world-weary melancholy, harsh guttural rasping vocals and some good melodies and riffs that (unfortunately) don't repeat throughout the track so you do forget them and remember the harsh guitars, the heavy rhythms and the dreary moods. "Through Phobetor's Night" is similarly dense, packed with lugubrious riffing, moaning vocals and painful guitar-tone abrasion but near the end the track features a very quiet and dark mini-drama of tolling-bell guitar tone, clicking programmed drum and emphatic beats, as though waiting for final judgement. Beneath the layers of harsh grinding death-doom, occasional clear-toned guitar lines ring out but end up getting swallowed up by the despair.

Each song passes by slowly and gracefully, and while in themselves the songs can be interesting to follow, with some tracks featuring their own little melodramas, put together on the one album they tend to merge into one another. Most songs don't have enough individuality or repetition of distinct melodic themes that would make them different from one another. The instruments used are the same all the way through, and listeners might wish for at least one track to have a slightly different instrumental mix, even if just a dreaded analog synthesiser masquerading as a fake orchestra is included. So to hear the album all the way through can be mind-numbing the first couple of times - yes it's good technically but the monotony combined with the album's dense quality is heavy going. The band sails away as if on autopilot and signs of originality or a possible outbreak of deranged fretboard shredding are nowhere to be heard in its wake.

The album might have worked better if each song featured an extra instrument unique to it or the atmospheres and moods on each song had been enhanced with effects that also made them unique to the track. Then again, Revelations of Rain may be just happy refining their style and keeping their current fans happy. At this stage of their career though - "Akrasia" is the band's fifth album - the guys might consider trying something that takes them away from their comfort zone on the next album.

Still exploiting their melancholy vibes, Russian melodic doom/death metallers Откровения Дождя, romanized as Revelations of Rain, continue to bring the anguish, atmosphere and power that has remained at the forefront of their sound for over a decade. Coming together after a three-year break, the group finally releases their fifth full-length album October 24, 2016 on powerhouse label Solitude Productions.

There’s very little reinvention going on throughout this album, and that tends to be one of it’s more impressive marks as it’s focused on their previous works. Continuing forth with an epic grandeur, the album is backed with crushing, monolithic riffing that’s slow, deep and immensely heavy which allows the band to effortlessly shift to varying stylistic approaches without losing their own identity. Utilizing the agonized, lethargic sprawling tempos for the vast majority of their tactical style and then balancing that out with sections of light atmospheric trinkling that showcases a fine melodic bent alongside fiery, up-tempo sections containing the band putting a lot more energetic and riffier segments of more melodic death metal elements getting introduced which really completes the whole dynamic on display. The fact that this one manages to stay on course throughout here without really deviating too much from their standard sound as this one manages to go for a wide range of gloom-infused melancholic doom/death featuring the fine melodies, haunting riff-work and simply crushing patterns that make up the majority of this one that are wholly impressive in their delivery and execution which really helps this one generate quite a large amount of positives over the one low-riding flaw to be found here. This one is exceptionally overlong and really does manage to feel it’s length as it’s quite weighty during various segments in here. It’s not necessarily a detrimental effort, but it’s still noticeable.

Although it gets too weighty and lengthy at times for its own good, the fact that this is still a highly impressive and completely crushing effort which really works nicely here in regards to the genre so that all fans of their past works or melancholic doom metal are encouraged to take notice of this one.

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.