Loquitur Cum Alqo Sathanas

Although usually I keep an eye on upcoming events, Tuman (Туман with original cyrillic, meaning dusk - that's what is usually pronounced as Tymah), which is nowadays all the rage in Hungary, has somehow escaped my attention until now. Members of this partly Russian, partly Hungarian band has been involved in several other bands and projects. The album is not bad at all, but after hearing it once I didn't get what's the big deal about Tuman. How did they manage to become so well-known? They are not that good.

Seeing it unbiased, this is black metal above average, reminding me of Dakthrone at the faster parts and the first two Burzum releases at the slower ones. Its more modern sound and higher speed also bears some similarity with Nargaroth – not mentioning the primitive lyrics.

I don't hear much of the bass, but this is not a serious problem. The drum work heavily resembles Fenriz's but got more into the foreground in the mix, and he hits more often the cymbals, so there are more ornamentive motifs (more, which doesn't mean many.) The riffs are not bad at all, they are typical nothern black metal themes, not amongst the greatest ones but still above average.

One peculiarity is the vocals, for they are produced by a girl. Unlike in Asterte, for example, this cannot be observed here at all; she produces the hoarse screaming numerous Burzum clone attempts, and which makes them much more similar to each other than to Burzum itself. The band also mentions Dead as an influence but – fortunately – there's not much common in Dim's and Dead's voice.

It would be difficult to emphasize anything. There are no weak tracks, nor ones I would listen eight times in a row. The strongest one has become Kulcs, but I couldn't tell why; maybe for its having the most memorable melody.

Final verdict: I think Tuman, with many other Hungarian bands, belong to the better groups in the second league. They are obviously overrated, which doesn't mean it's bad. Admirers of classic black metal may want to purchase for it, because Tuman put together a fairly good material.

Originally written for http://www.kronosmortus.hu