Зеркала

Sorry kids, this might not be the most original material here, but it is really effective and groovy death metal. And the saddest thing? It's a single. One measly, tiny song of a little over 5 minutes. Oh well. It also does not feature founding members Umeda and Kursheda Fasilova, two of the more unique (though not necessarily most metal) members of this Tajik group. There's enough variation from the aggression spectrum to keep you headbanging throughout, and "Зеркала" is well composed so as to keep you guessing as to where the song is headed.

The first thing that will strike you is that this is way more aggressive and better executed than Homeworld. The new drummer is a step up with his focus on fluid double bass playing that grinds in lock step with the guitars, especially when the triplets show up. It sounds like some sort of meat grinder chewing up your flesh. "Зеркала" has a good amount of variation in it, but in the thrash-y parts he sounds just like Kursheda...weird.

The guitar work is really nice--you've got those serpentine, quasi-oriental riffs from Homeworld, along with some plodding sections and bends that sound a bit like Celtic Frost or Black Sabbath. There's a little melody that shows up here and there, just to remind you that they can do more than just chug along. The dichotomy between guitar lines sometimes have that Hannemann/King dissonance to them that makes you feel uncomfortable and threatened--a real nice touch. The guitar solo on the outro, likewise, has a far more unfocused, chaotic feel from the rest of the song.

While the new drummer is a big improvement over Kursheda's straightforward attack, the straight up death vocals don't have any of the hooks of Umeda's clean sections, which brought the hooks that made earlier Red Planet catchy and memorable. He's competent at doing standard growls or the occasional raspy scream, but you could interchange him with any number of vocalists and not know the difference.

As much as I can whine about the nearly monochromatic vocals and lack of hooks, Зеркала is a really goddamn well composed piece of music with a nice, beefy production you wouldn't expect coming out of not-so-metal Tajikistan. It makes you sad Red Planet never got to do much more, because this isn't your typical Lamb of God modern metal worship, but something intelligent and expertly composed.