Into the Chasms of Lunacy

Desolate, sad and profound. This is the debut album by Hungarian maniacs Vorkuta (named after a Siberian city famous for a nearby gulag) that has existed in recorded form since mid 2006. Ruin Productions have released a tape version, which I did not hesitate to procure having heard a burn of this previously.

There is just one problem with this album – it is too short. Fucking Jesus Christ – this only has 3 songs on it! More – there should be more on an album where everything else is so good. The rest of the album is ambient, and great as it is, it doesn’t make your head bang as hard as some of the stuff on here.

In our depressive times, hard rocking black metal is hard to come by, and where the times languish Vorkuta delivers killer rhythm and stark mood changes. There are neck-snapping punk beats and crisp blasts together mingled with eerie keyboard and bass occultism, narrated by unhinged shrill vocals.

With the first two rockers passed, there is a keyboard nocturne “Stardust” followed by a slower song “Vorkuta” which progressed over a menacing mid-tempo trail with the song’s story being croaked out hoarsely by the singer. There are some nice bass and keyboard leads at the end and the album draws to its close through the ambient piece “Within the Fortress of Melancholia”.

This is one is especially for fans of the old stuff like Bethlehem and Bathory.

Originally published in Procession of Black Doom Zine #1