Dying Emotions Domain

Funny how expectation and reality so often sit at right angles to one another. I was compelled to buy into this Ukrainian black metal project by the presence of Saturious, one of the Nokturnal Mortum keyboardists, only to find that he is the major blight on this release! He was brought in as a guest performer, perhaps to garner some attention for the band, but this clearly is a marriage that was not meant to be.

Dying Emotions Domain could have been a killer release. Surely, few could deny that the main riffs of "Fiery Mysticism" are pure class. At its heart, Astrofaes is a raging, raw black metal band that churns out some very powerful and heavy rhythms, catchy blast beats, hard-hitting snare beats and good (though fairly standard) snarled black vocals. Unfortunately, every time Saturious chips in with his little contributions, things become awkward - he seems to be in constant conflict with the rest of the band. Unlike the more folk-styled keys of Nokturnal Mortum, these are synthetic attempts at grand symphonic something-or-other, and they're pretty fucking lame... certainly not congruent with the vile savagery going on around him. On "Path to Burning Space" we see some improvement as the intro features a more appropriate melody including my most hated of instruments, the saxophone. Kudos to the band for making such a shitty instrument sound good. But minus points for some of the cheesy shite we hear emerging from Saturious's Casio throughout the remainder of said song.

While the keyboards may prevent this from being a highly recommended release, I can at least assure the reader that Astrofaes is fundamentally a sound band, and well worth keeping tabs on as they progress (and in the case of the keys, hopefully regress a little too). Note also that they do a very fine cover of Celtic Frost's "Necromantical Screams" - keeping the old school vibe alive while adding their own touches to the interpretation. Since the CD release has a fairly demo-level production, a safe bet would be to buy the original tape version, which usually goes for just a few bucks.

One final note - this album features some of the most atrocious butchery of the English language I have ever seen. I won't quote the lyrics out of respect for the band and their non-Anglophonic roots, but seriously guys, if you can't speak English just speak Ukrainian! There really is no point trying to communicate your message when the delivery is so embarrassingly awkward.