SKD

Since his debut "Vandrer" came out in 2006, the Murmansk-based act Stielas Storhett has had a steady if not very prolific output. In the meantime there has been steady progress in the music itself: it has become more melodic and features more aggression and drama if this brief EP is anything to go by.

The way the EP is split into two equal halves of what is essentially the one track suggests it was originally released in vinyl single format. On "SKD 1", vocals are very tortured and anguished and the angular contorted guitar riffs don't add any comfort. The percussion pounds and gallops throughout the track giving it a raging fury. Rolling clouds of guitar are sometimes contrasted by flashes of spiky guitar. An air of desperation hangs over the music. "SKD 2" is bookended by spoken voice recordings and has a slightly more industrial feel with the machine-like beats and the metallic howl of the guitars. Riffs seem more conventionally heavy metal with a lot of low-end crunch and the drums have a doomy crushing beat. The song becomes more urgent as it carries on, as if life is running out and the countdown to zero only has a few more seconds to go. There's nothing like a flourish of violins and a brief passage in which someone pontificates on what's gone before in Russian to finish of the song and the EP: it sounds all very philosophical but then lots of things sound philosophical when spoken in Russian!

The set is very emotional and intense with heavy doses of despair and resignation to one's meeting with destiny, both perched on the edge of madness. The sound is very clear and emphasises the jerkiness of the rhythms in the music, expressing the discomfort and desperation. Whatever iciness I remember from "Vandrer" disappeared a long time ago and Stielas Storhett is well on the way to becoming a mainstream heavy metal act with a few extreme black metal and other underground elements. The work here is not very original - it does slot a bit too easily into the melodic post-BM camp - but Stielas Storhett seems eager to explore and expand his range in a way that he feels comfortable with.

Fans of atmospheric black metal may be a bit disappointed that the act opted to move away from a purely ambient approach and has gone for a more post-metal style with some experimentation. This is a path Stielas Storhett has chosen for better and for worse: if it's necessary for him to keep his creativity sharp to change his style drastically, we should applaud his bravery in taking risks, both successful and unsuccessful, with his music.