Drowned in a SwampHeart of Evrope

The quality of this seems to swing wildly from one track to the next, but the general order is that the first demo is much weaker than the second. 'Drowned In A SwampHeart Of Evrope' and its contained demo tracks seem to vary from really, devastatingly mediocre to pretty good, but honestly I'd suggest the release as a whole is more the former than the latter. Kruk plays one of the most generic varieties of Slavic black metal I've ever heard; it's right up there with Kladovest for how much it can worship Blazebirth Hall and not actually convey a tenth of the meaning or quality those bands tend to. At no point is this unlistenable, but it's by and large very boring music recommended to those who just want to listen to something eastern European.

The first demo reminds me unpleasantly of a more traditionalist spin on Kladovest; it's got a similar (though mildly less grating) sort of digital production, the songs are extremely simple, and the delivery of it makes it sound like the whole thing was written in a couple days and put to tape as quickly as possible. The bright moments are the more melodic tracks like 'Akanavany' which sound kind of like a low-budget Taake. The other tracks are more Nordic-driven in riffing style and aren't nearly as good; they just kind of drag around a few simple riffs until the track's a couple minutes long and then abruptly stop with no real resolution. I guess that's not exceptionally bizarre for underground eastern European black metal, but come on, you can do better than that.

The second's a fair bit better as it makes me think that it's cribbed from forgotten old Dub Buk demo tracks that never made their way to a real album. There's a similar sense of Slavic melody at work and the composition as a whole just sounds richer even though this is still fairly basic alternating riff music. In addition, the production is broader and less gratingly digital and the vocals switch from monotonous black metal snarl on the first demo to a more Branikald-style Slavic shout. Yes, they love Slavic black metal! Just love it! I mean, I know we all do, but don't you have any original ideas, Kruk? Well, at least this is better than the first demo; it's hardly stellar music and I'd recommend you pick up just about any given Lutomysl or Dub Buk or Branikald CD first, but it's SOMETHING at least.

Slavic black metal appears to be the big underground trend these days, and while I get its appeal, it should probably be left to the bands that are actually from the Ukraine or Russia rather than everyone in the world. Kruk isn't bad, but they're pitiably average, just like seemingly everything else in modern black metal. You can skip this and go listen to something more interesting.

I'm sure that Kruk (which means 'raven' in several Euro-Asian languages) would've preferred a score of 88 points...else why would they have released a "limited edition" of 88 copies? That certainly qualifies as cryptic! As you probably know, this cd is a compilation of their 2 demos, the first half being of higher quality than the second, though both are quite listenable. There is a rather amusing statement inside from the mastermind of the band, also a brief explanation for many songs; credit must be given them, showing consideration for their non-Belarussian listeners! There is a super-amusing claim in the notes that tracks 11-18 have no "vocal sounds made by humans", or something along those lines...though these songs DO have vocals!

The music is suitably grim black metal; keyboards are present, but not to a prominent extent. They ARE more prominent on the second half of the album, however. Most of these songs are rather primitive with only a few guitar riffs each, and not much tempo variety. Several of the songs have interesting bridges and breaks. The first half of the album is pretty thick and crunchy; the second half is more watered-down sounding. The vocals on the second half don't display much variety; along the lines of perhaps ancient Immortal. The first half's vocals are a bit more interesting, but not much. Drums are, well, pretty low on this band's list of priorites, it seems.

So, it sounds like a pretty paint-by-numbers black metal album, doesn't it? Actually, there is a personality herein, and upon approximately 3 listens it appears. It accomplishes a mood of bleak savagery; it is not as "cold" as many black metal albums, but is certainly not a pleasant sounding set of songs. After hearing this, I will now be interested to check out their follow-up full length.

One quick note about the packaging: it is quite nice and very professional-looking. To sum up "Drowned in a Swampheart of Europe", it is worth investigating if you don't demand too much innovation or variety in your black metal. If you are looking for technical prowess or something novel, look elsewhere!