Energy - Freedom: Force Is Strong Power Is Imperious (Энергия - свобода: Сила сильная, власть властная)

Let's whittle down this rather long-ass album title to Energy - Freedom. Right from there, we can start to pinpoint where Svyatogor let us down on this record. I mean, they have energy, more or less, most of the time. But freedom? Nah. This is, with one marvelous exception "The Voice of Blood", the stodgiest of by-the-book black metal.

I'll concede that the guitars are well-recorded, so we can hear what they're up to. Unfortunately, what they play is almost entirely unimaginative. Most of it is trying, with very limited success, for that De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas sense of atmospheric occultism; by playing slowish, subtly melodic riffs. Then there is their "epic" side, displayed on the 10 minute opus "Having Broken Life Off". Problem is, long, dull and trudging doesn't make your song a passable substitute for Immortal's "A Perfect Vision of the Rising Northland". Svyatogor also put out a lameball excuse for 1349's more thrashy side of black metal on "Black Spheres". So, points for changing it up I guess, but it's really just one weak rip-off taking the place of another. 

On a somewhat happier note, the plodding nature of the guitar rhythms allows the vocalist to catch up. He rasps out (again, rather un-creatively), short and simple lines at a time, such that he is able to stretch out some notes for added emotional impact. There is also precisely one moment where the bass does something cool. At around 3:20 into "Greedy World", the bass strikes out on its own for a fairly long foreshadowing of the first of two genuinely memorable guitar riffs on this album.

So is Energy - Freedom entirely a waste of time? Not quite. "The Voice of Blood" stands so far above the rest, that that one song alone makes me raise the overall score up into mediocrity. It opens with some acoustic portions, which are a very effective lead-up toward an astonishingly lovely folk-infused main riff. There are also some rousing anthemic clean vocals trading off with the black rasps - a gambit at which Slavic artists are rapidly becoming the masters. "The Voice of Blood" truly rivals the best work of Nokturnal Mortum, Drudkh or Temnozor. An entire disc of this, would have put Energy - Freedom on my must-haves list.

Alas, it took Svyatogor 45 minutes of blather to realize they can write a fantastic five minute pagan metal song. I can't imagine why they felt the need to almost completely limit themselves to pale copies of the greats. Here's hoping these Ukrainians learned to find their own voice on upcoming releases.