Тотальный исход

I have no idea what any of this means. The line up, the song titles, the name of the album, or even the band's moniker, I haven't got the foggiest notion. An old friend of mine had this album, and when I heard it, I knew I had to have it as well, but how do you search for this? Eventually, I managed to pick it up at a record fair, still not knowing what any of it means. What I do know, is that it's a genuine banger, alright!

This band plays an aggressive mixture of fast and belligerent death metal with a hefty dose of seething grindcore. In this, they have me thinking of bands like old Napalm Death, Atrocity (US), Nuclear Death and early Disharmonic Orchestra, but (and probably) because of the grainy and rough production, they also have me thinking of the first Beherit and Sarcofago albums. With the fast and aggressive riffing fighting it out with primitive blast beats, the band keeps the adrenaline flowing, and a big part of their menacing and volatile sound are the vicious growling vocals. These sound as if they were recorded through a broken microphone, yet they radiate a truly menacing atmosphere, fitting in well, even adding an extra layer of acidic fury to the already violent music. In the track "Кровоточащий испуг", they take the foot off the accelerator to let a slow, doomed-out part creep in to pave the way for another blast of grinding ferocity to follow, which works extremely well. Other cool touches are to be found in the opening track, which has a touch of both Motörhead and earliest Voivod added in the opening riff, and a cut like "Кишечные черви" sees the influence of old Venom acknowledged. All of the tracks featured are varied cuts of brutal grinding death metal, combining battering velocity with pounding slower sections, and the guitar leads are actually well above the average. When these elements are combined together, the band manages to create an album that's high on adrenaline and energy, while being just that varied enough to not blur out in a haze of distortion and speed.

As touched upon above, the production is on the pretty rough side, as is expected from an early 90's death/grind release from Russia. The rhythm guitars are a bit too far in the background, and the whole picture sounds lightly muffled throughout. There are the distorted vocals, and of the percussion only the snare comes through for most part, yet it all works here. The music sounds as aggro as what have ya, and as a whole this album oozes early 90's underground spirit, retaining lots of its energy and power.

Perhaps that not everything featured on here works as well, but this has certainly one thing going for it: it emanates an awesome, kinda naive charm, that only these old extreme metal albums seem to do. It has enthusiasm, aggression and excellent execution on offer in droves, and this is one of those obscure gems that all into early 90's extremity should not miss out on.