Стена

This is probably one of the least known Russian metal formations outside the boundaries of the big country… I can’t even remember if the band have ever visited Bulgaria… they do hold a near-legendary status in their homeland, though, but elsewhere they’re largely unknown. On one side we have their penchant for singing in their mother tongue, which could be a reason for their international obscurity; on the other we have their style which is a far-reaching conglomerate of hard rock, heavy, power, speed and thrash, one that doesn’t tend to any particular audience but throws in quite a few influences without certain direction.

For not very clear reasons the guys spent the 80’s in live appearances, and when their debut “Wall” hit the stores, metal wasn’t quite the most popular genre on the planet anymore. We’re looking at a remastered version of most of the compositions from the debut here plus a few earlier recorded, but not heretofore officially released cuts, a compilation that got released in 1994, but one that still holds the classic canons in high esteem. It’s probably refreshing to hear the bouncy power/thrashing motifs from the title-track in the midst of a raging numetal campaign, nothing overtly aggressive, but lively enough to make a few heads shake, the rough inebriate semi-clean vocals not adding much passion to the music, sounding detached and semi-listless. But the singer is not the albums’ biggest problem; apart from the closing “Black Obelisk”, there isn’t any semblance of vigorous speed/thrashing elsewhere, the guys throwing themselves all over the music spectre with funky rock-ish vaudevilles (“House of Yellow Dream”), blase semi-balladic melancholies (“Ave, Caesar”), and overlong tedious balladic progressivers (“The Sword”). The metal fans’ patience will get seriously tested on the rock’n roll charade “Gray Saint“, and although the frolic crossover/punk rhythms on “The Gambler” could be viewed a small revelation, nothing can redeem the sleep-inducing boredom on “Illness”; yes, an incurably ill balladic tractate.

A really tepid, bland package that inexplicably misses the finest songs from the original recording, the speed/thrashing generator “We Got Enough”, and the steady hypnotic mid-pacer “Midnight”. The new material (“House of Yellow Dream”, “Illness”) are the worst possible replacements for those two, ruining this offering way beyond repair. It’s not that the other numbers are anything worth talking/writing about; again, it’s really hard to point at the right audience for such a meek unfocused repertoire… on the other hand, some of those cuts had already been written before 1991, they appear on their live recordings from the 80’s; and those spawning stages could by all means tolerate all possible stylistic fluctuations… the thing is that when you put them into one full-length, homogeneity severely lacks, to put it mildly.

It’s a pity, this dishevelled compilation, cause the guys’ skills are clearly there; and they were put to a much better use on subsequent recordings which held no fascinations for more aggressive thrashy outbursts, sticking to competent not very exuberant classic heavy metal, a sound the band have been exercising all the way to the present day, a few acoustic experiments (the albums from 2017/18) notwithstanding. It’s a solid repertoire, the latter period one, once the vacillating switches among styles were abandoned… the wall had its fitting completion, not necessarily painted all black.