Review
Infektion #6
8.5/10

Incansáveis são os The Sullen Route, quintento russo! Incansáveis, porque os seus trabalhos editados, que são três: dois LP e um EP foram lançados este ano e em 2010! E acabou! Esta banda, com uma carreira tão curta, já conta com um portefólio que faz invejar algumas bandas com décadas. “Apocalyclinic” é um álbum de um doom muito negro e obscuro que, segundo os The Sullen Route, “demonstra uma evolução do doom death ortodoxo, para uma área que não pode ser classificada”. E estas palavras são certas: este segundo álbum tem muitas influências de outras áreas: post rock, post metal e progressivo. Essas influências estão bem presentes em “Burial Ground” que tem um riff imenso, com uma cadência perfeita, prolongando-se até ao infinito… Ou algo surpreendente, que em “Dune” se econtra um Groove country. Tendo em conta a duração das músicas (três mais de 8 minutos e as restantes não menos de 5:30), pode-se ter uma ideia de onde este grupo quer chegar. É um álbum bastante impressionante, especialmente para uma banda que iniciou a vida em estúdio no ano passado e parece que já está bem enraizada na confecção de grandes malhas. Um bom álbum, que, a este ritmo, é apenas o terceiro de uma longa e próspera carreira!

Author: Narciso Antunes

Review
Horror News
04.09.2011

The Sullen Route is a four-piece band from Volgograd Russia. Moving away from their death metal roots, they branch out into new territory with sophomore release Apocalyclinic.

The band’s label Bad Mood Man Music has this to say about their style:

“«Apocalyclinic» demonstrates evolution from orthodox doom death metal to the area which cannot be definitely classified: in the new work of the musicians one can find influence of dark metal combined with features of post metal and progressive metal, extreme vocals, and powerful and solid sound.”

I don’t really hear much death metal on this album. Rather, it has more of a late 90’s/early 2000’s feel with lots of palm-muted power chords laying down the rhythm underneath lead guitar with lots of reverb and picking. In fact, Apocalyclinic is basically a heavy, melodic album—much closer to the works of traditional band Helmet than death metal act Immolation.

This line from the label accurately depicts Apocalyclinic’s main strengths:

“The essential advance in music is manifested by refined structure of compositions and brilliant mastering.”

Song writing on Apocalyclinic is excellent, and makes the album greater than the sum of its parts. Like many Russian bands, The Sullen Route do not rush their music. The shortest song on the album clocks in at over five-minutes, and the longest is over eight minutes. Often times, bands who write songs at those lengths add a lot of filler, but not The Sullen Route. The band shows tremendous aptitude for combining simple arrangements in exciting ways. Songs like Selfish I show an uncanny knack for knowing when to add a bridge, when to go heavy, when to go soft and how to transition from one to the next.

Vocals on the album range from very good to poor. When vocalist Elijah screams and growls, he is at his best. But when he tries to sing, it’s just not there for him. Tonight’s Avenue Is a straight-up power ballad that calls for singing. Elijah’s gravelly voice just doesn’t do it justice. Heavy songs like Cynoptic and All in October are more of a natural fit for him. Dune and Hysteria are in the middle ground where the singing fits, but neither adds nor subtracts from the overall experience.

At first listen, I was not very impressed with Apocalyclinic, but the album grew on me. If you’re looking for a quick pop fix, this isn’t for you. But if you enjoy the late 90’s/early 2000’s sound, there is a lot to like on this album. Also, if you’re sick of the limitations death metal imposes on itself, Apocalyclinic just might be that bridge to more open styles of metal for you.

Author: Leo Godin

Review
Zwaremetalen
8.9/10
25.10.2011

Wat hebben we hier? Als je het mij vraagt een auditief Russisch pareltje. The Sullen Route overstijgt met het tweede album het death doom-label. Waar we dan precies wel mee te maken hebben is niet te zeggen. In ieder geval wel met kwaliteit. Dat is namelijk in zulke grote hoeveelheden aanwezig dat mijn digitale versie van Apocalyclinic bijna uit zijn voegen barst.

Het eerste nummer knalt na wat modulerende noten los met een heldere, moderne productie, met een prominente rol voor de basgitaar. Vocalen rangeren van clean tot grunt en slaan geen tussenfase over. Muzikaal doen sommige nummers me denken aan een combinatie van The Morningside en een iets meer naar death doom neigende Ghost Brigade. Toch heeft The Sullen Route voldoende eigen gezicht om zich te onderscheiden.

Solitude Productions en in dit geval het sublabel Bad Mood Man flikken het weer. Pure kwaliteit uit de Russische doom scene. Apocalyclinic staat vol met toegankelijke melodieën en aannemelijke melancholie. Nergens is de muziek echt slepend te noemen, er wordt meer aan progressiviteit gedacht. Dit is voor mij een uiterst prettige kennismaking met een band die ik voorlopig in de gaten ga houden. Persoonlijke favoriet in huize Van Tuijl is Cynoptic.

Author: Willem van Tuijl

Review
Femforgacs
7.7/10
11.11.2011

Az orosz, The Sullen Route tavalyi debüt lemezéről haragSICK írt egy nagyon hangulatos kritikát, aminek a bevezetőjében megemlítette, hogy a srácok nem aprózták el a dolgokat, mindenféle demó, vagy EP készítése helyett egyből egy nagylemezzel rukkoltak elő.
A Madness of My Own Design egy tradicionális doom-death album lett, némi post rockos színesítéssel, de „a járt utat a járatlanért el ne hagyj” szlogen teljes mértékű betartásával készült. Ezzel szemben az új opusz, az Apocalyclinic olyan, mintha egy, a demós korszakát élő banda műve lenne, akik még keresik a saját hangjukat, kísérleteznek stílusokkal, hangzásokkal, mielőtt kiadnának egy nagylemezt. Vagy csak ki akartak próbálni valami mást is, ezért lett jóval heterogénebb, színesebb a debüthöz képest az új album?

Erre csak ők tudnának válaszolni, mi csupán annyit érzünk, hallunk az egészből, hogy ezúttal egy jóval bátrabb zenei anyag született.
Én nem vagyok feltétlen híve az első lemezüknek, bár elismerem az értékeit, de leginkább a lassan kibontakozó, tanítani valóan felépített, gyönyörű dallamvezetésű gitárszólók miatt maradt meg az emlékezetemben. Bár haragSICK több bandát is említett párhuzamként, én mindenképp hozzátenném még a korai Paradise Lost nevét is, hisz a gitárszólók kapcsán nekem egyből az ilyen gitározásban szinte felülmúlhatatlan Greg Mackintosh neve ugrott be és a korai Lost lemezeken prezentált szólói.
De ahogy a Hysteria a be-be úszó gitárhangok után beindul, egy zeneileg, felépítését tekintve (sőt bizonyos szempontból ide csaphatjuk az éneket is), a középkorszakos (Shades of God – Draconian Times) Lostot halljuk szinte majdnem ugyanolyan minőségben!
Az első lemezen nyoma sem volt a dallamosabb énekkísérleteknek, itt már a kezdő nóta valami olyasmivel indít, ami bár még nem tökéletes, de mindenképp üdítő!
Legalábbis számomra, mert én az angol nagymesterek lemezeit is onnantól kezdtem el igazán értékelni, miután Nick igazi éneklésre ragadtatta magát. A Selfish I a narrációt kombinálja a hörgéssel, a refrén alatt pedig egy akkora horzsoló, mélyre hangolt, szigorú riffet tolnak, hogy attól féltem szétmennek a hangfalaim! Egyébként néhol olyan, mintha túl lenne kompresszálva a sound, no nem Death Magnetices szinten, de azért majdnem…
Viszont már az első két dal után feltűnt, hogy bár sokkal nagyobb teret engedtek a kísérletezésnek, a debüt nagyszerű gitárszólóit viszont mintha száműzték volna. Mondjuk vannak díszítések, és a Selfish I-ban úgy tűnik, hogy már-már elindul valami, de aztán szinte ugyanazt a dallamot ismétli a gitáros, tehát a klasszikus értelemben nem fejlődik szólóvá.
Csakúgy, mint a leghosszabb nótában, a Burial Groundban.
A Cynoptic a post metal vizeire evez, hogy aztán a Dune képében megkapjuk a legkísérletezősebb dalt, ugyanis kb. az történik, hogy keverik benne a déli stoneres, „mocsár-metalos” vonalat a szokásos deathes doomolással. A végeredmény föltétlen érdekes, de inkább pozitív, mint degradáló, negatív irányba. Vagyis pofás kis nóta, csak a dallamos ének jár még nagyon gyerekcipőben.
A Tonight’s Avenue-ban aztán megkapom azt, amire az első dal óta várok, vagyis a Mackintosh-féle szólót! Az énekes meg olyasmi ráspolyos, vodka és cigi áztatta hangon dalolászik, mint Tom Waits.
Az 5. perc környékén itt is kapunk egy kis post rockos lebegést, amiből az a fajin kis szóló bontakozik ki és a lemez legjobb énekötlete is itt figyel, sajnos elég gyenge minőségben prezentálva. Egy jó énekes tálalásában ez katartikus pillanat lenne, így megmarad ígéret szintjén. Ahogy a banda maga, akik annak ellenére, hogy nem végeztek tökéletes munkát, egy vállalható, többdimenziós lemezt tettek le az asztalra, ami a jövőre nézve elég biztató.

Mondanom se kell, ha a későbbiekben még több dallamos énekkel szeretnének operálni, akkor nagyon rá kell feküdni arra a hangképzésre, mert a záró All In October (leginkább ez a dal idézi a debüt világát) végighörgéséhez megvan a vokalista képessége, de a tiszta ének esetében hallhatóak a hiányosságai.
Összességében én jobban szeretem ezt az albumot az előzőnél, és kíváncsian várom a folytatást!

Author: oldboy

Review
Hellride Music
14.11.2011

Simply put, bands like The Sullen Route are very few and far between these days.

Their sound is somewhere between the more melodic and dark instrumental traits of Isis, and a uniquely delicate balance between their own debut’s surreal and intricate doom/death funereal atmospheres. On Apocalyclinic the band is less suffocating and abysmal, and leaves a lot of room to breathe although I can honestly say that they still maintain the musical embodiment of their name. The album as a whole makes me feel as if I’ve just abandoned society and it’s contentions and trekked off into the void destined to wander aimlessly in solitude, but more for an intellectual reason and enlightenment journey versus simply abandoning life and heading for self-inflicted misery.

The rhythms are very loose, slightly proggy/mathy, but still managing to avoid post-metal altogether in a way that keeps them distinctly dark and metal, that is PURELY metal ( … had to add that in for those that have a weak stomach for the so-called “weaker” and dare say “prettier” forms of METAL).

Overall the best way to describe Apocalyclinic is to say that it plays out the ideas of solitude and searching through sadness for something better versus the expected suicidal, frustrated, hopeless, and desperate ill-fated themes that go with “solitude” and “sadness” inspired creations. The vocals still maintain a hint of the painsokaed and deliberate impact of artists like Evoken, then there’s some raspy almost spoken word vocal parts that act almost as “clean”, but never do they stray away from the grim and intense style expected. The solo/melodic guitar work is so clean in places that it really triggers a respectful awe alongside a deep-rooted internal response to the mood they create. Even the riffs crash down in a skull shattering delivery upon the listener creating this inescapable force of being sucked into the vast blackness of where no standard soul would ever venture by choice.

The heavy steel laid down to open the opener, “Hysteria” gets you innervated for something anthemic and powerful than keeps it going strong with hints of the dark melodic prog metal of say Porcupine Tree, and I’d even say that there’s some definite similarities to bands like Russian Circles/Isis/Red Sparrows present. But even with the melodic and emotional tinge, the heart of this song and the album is absolutely bleeding and turning to stone over time, it’s gloom metal as opposed to Doom metal.

“Burial Ground” is a melodic and down-tuned bulldozer pure and simple. Aside from the chugging, sometimes shredding riffs, the band still manages to not only have this haunting western/desert guitar melody behind the mix that brings to mind more of a vision of a graveyard in the middle of Death Valley, with an interesting and yet unknown history to it. It has some “The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly” in it, but the way the band lays it down without ever going too “emo” or technical really captures the listener in the saga that is the song itself and drowns them as a result. Songs like “Dune” even have a killer steel/slide guitar intro that aids in the experience of wandering through the desert, which is what you really feel as if you’re doing as you listen to this album through it’s entirety. It’s a very “lost in the American desert along a dusty and barren highway” envisioning track with a hearty dose of great metal riffing and arpeggiated technicality.

So in summary, this is a masterful and unique experience that shows how an already solid band can continue to evolve as can metal and it’s sub-genres into something timeless instead of being yet another white elephant. Most of us have such little cash to burn on buying everything that comes out, so why buy more albums of the same old shit when you can get something (singular) that you will actually enjoy and remember… it makes more cents, doesn’t it?

Seriously, I can’t pull myself away from this one to review the others, it’s just that intense and heavy. I really look forward to hearing more from this Russian band in the near future, this is seriously hypnotic and intoxicating stuff to listen to.

Fans of: Evoken, Solitude Aeturnus, Isis, While Heaven Wept, Mirror of Deception.

Seriously check them out at their website and also on YouTube (They have “Dune” and “Hysteria”)

Author: Janet Willis

Review
Mtuk Metal Zine

Aha, another dose of miserabilism from the Eastern purveyors of all things depressive, those fine chaps over at Bad Mood Man music / Solitude Productions. Nicely enough, this is really quite different than the last batch of their albums that I reviewed, which although all good in their own rights, were essentially all varieties of My Dying Bride clones. Happily, “The Sullen Route” aren’t really cut from the same cloth at all.

A four piece hailing from Russia, (the new home of doom/death?), it’s fair to say that while the band are very much in doom territory, this is a somewhat more sophisticated offering than those of their immediate peers. For the most part, this is medium to slow paced downcast, downbeat music that clearly has roots in death metal, without being burdened by the more cro-magnon elements of the music. With definite touches of light and shade in their compositions, they have more to do with the more progressive and imaginative extreme doom bands out there, and while I would hesitate to place them musically alongside the likes of Ghost Brigade and Daylight Dies, there is more than a passing affinity to the same atmosphere that is created. Quite a bit simpler than the afore mentioned bands, there maybe isn’t too much musically here that is going to blow you away; many of the riffs are fairly basic (albeit played well), and the melodies that erupt now and then to add some fractured light to the mire are perfect for the songs without ever being flashy virtuoso displays of technical talent. Elijah certainly isn’t going to be winning any awards for originality for his brutal hoarse bellow, but then sometimes there is something to be said for the familiarity that bands can offer.

While this isn’t ever going to be winning awards for originality or technicality, it does have a really pleasing maudlin atmosphere running throughout, and avoids the lace-hanky boo-hoo-isms that infect much of the rest of the gothic doom oeuvre. The simplicity of the music actually works in favour of the band, with the songs being given time and space to breathe, an almost organic production helps in this regard, with some of the rawness of the emotion almost erupting from the speakers when this disc is turned up loud. A worthy addition to the Bad Mood Man catalogue, and a definite band to watch for the future. This album provides sturdy foundations to build upon for the future. It may not be making my best of the year list, but it’s also a long way off the worst.

Author: Chris Davison

Review
The Pit of The Damned
7.5/10
17.12.2011

Devo ammettere che non mi avevano fatto impazzire in occasione della loro prima release anche se un 65 se l’erano portato a casa, colpa di un sound un po’ troppo ridondante, fin troppo asfissiante e privo di una certa personalità. Il quartetto russo (orfano della bella bassista che aveva popolato i miei sogni in occasione della prima release) ci riprova e devo confessare che un bel balzo in avanti i nostri l’hanno fatto, forse seguendo anche le indicazioni che da più parti erano arrivate dagli addetti ai lavori, e che quanto contestavo nel precedente “Madness of my Own Design”, in questo nuovo capitolo è stato definitivamente limato e sistemato. Partendo comunque da una base death doom, ecco che la band di Volgograd ha seguito qualche piccolo accorgimento: migliorato sensibilmente il songwriting e lo si evince fin dall’iniziale “Hysteria”; abbandonate le divagazioni pachidermiche, conferendo una maggiore ariosità e dinamicità alla proposta anche nelle parti più strettamente doom come nella seconda “Selfish I”; migliorata decisamente la performance vocale, con Elijah molto più sicuro nella sua veste non growl (non posso parlare di clean perché non sarebbe corretto). Ciò che di buono c’era nel debut è rimasto invariato e sto parlando di quelle atmosfere malinconiche/autunnali che qui sono state riprese e curate maggiormente nei dettagli (splendida “Burial Ground”) dove addirittura il doom sembra voler lasciare posto a delle divagazioni post rock, con parti arpeggiate che contribuiscono nel permeare il tutto di una velata vena nostalgica. L’album trasuda di calde emozioni: “Cynoptic” è una song dal mood quasi trip hop spezzata solo dal growling profondo di Elijah e da un riffing a tratti possente. L’apice lo si raggiunge però con “Dune”, song che miscela un southern metal con il death, questo a dimostrare che i The Sullen Route questa volta devono essere presi decisamente sul serio, perché le idee ci sono e sono anche estremamente interessanti, come dimostrato dal finale goticheggiante affidato a “Tonight’s Avenue” e alla roboante “All in October” (che mi ha ricordato qualcosa dei Rapture). Bel disco, ne sono lieto. Ora mi aspetto il capolavoro con la prossima release. Avanti tutta!

Author: Francesco Scarci

Review
Aristocrazia
26.12.2011

Avevamo lasciato i russi The Sullen Route solo un anno fa in occasione della recensione riguardante il debutto “Madness Of My Own Design”.
In quella circostanza si aveva fra le mani un album buono, piacevole all’ascolto ma privo di personalità e percorrente strade battute e ribattute, in una parola: canonico.
Con il secondo “Apocalyclinic” la storia cambia decisamente e adesso vediamo pure come.
La band al pari di un serpente sembra aver fatto la muta, buttata di lato la vecchia pelle si presenta con un sound che pur non disconoscendo il lato doom/death del passato si tinge adesso di venature gotiche, è capace di sviluppare striature progressive alquanto pregevoli e mostra in alcuni frangenti venature southern totalmente impreviste, è quindi una sorpresa continua.
Sette tracce ognuna degna di menzione, è però solo su quattro che voglio focalizzare la mia attenzione: “Hysteria”, l’opener mette da subito palesemente in vista i cambi attuati, rimangono la profondità e parte del sound scuro primorde, l’atmosfera però risente gradevolmente di influssi melancolici e la voce oltre alle più classiche linee in growl aggiunge delle soluzioni più agrodolci nei momenti riflessivi in cui è una sorta di “graffiato” che prende il controllo dietro il microfono.
Se il primo pezzo dell’album è già sintomo di una evoluzione interna evidente sia in fase di songwriting che di mentalità compositiva generale, con “Cynoptic” e il suo atteggiamento gelido, quasi distaccato emotivamente in cui è solo l’operato di Elijah ad aumentarne il “calore”, si denota una proposta che verte su dei suoni moderni, non so se l’aggettivo post sia adeguato, di sicuro è una visione alternativa che ben si sposa però con le più “inquadrate” ma comunque non prevedibili versioni southern con additivo rockeggiante che prende possesso di “Dune” e quella gothic riscontrabile nella più amara e velata di grigio “Tonight’s Avenue”.
È un gran bel passo in avanti quello compiuto dai The Sullen Route con “Apocalyclinic”, c’è però da precisare che il disco proprio per la sua natura così “diversa” dal solito, meno pressante, se non nella prestazione vocale, e incline a una “ripetitività” che assuefa con dolcezza, non è di quelle release da consigliare a chiunque, come superare tale “scoglio”? L’unica soluzione, come sempre del resto, è ascoltarlo più volte, riuscirete a entrare in contatto con ciò che sono adesso? Datevi una risposta.

Author: Mourning

Review
Metalitalia
5.5/10

Tornano sulle scene a relativamente poca distanza dal pessimo esordio “Madness Of My Own Design” i russi The Sullen Route che, con il nuovo “Apocalyclinic”, migliorano di poco la loro situazione, non riuscendo ancora una volta a concretizzare al meglio le poche idee uscite dal songwriting. Detto di una produzione che finalmente rende per lo meno giustizia al sound e della sostituzione della bassista Helen e del terribile chitarrista Max con Daniel e Serge, possiamo dire che il tasso tecnico del quartetto è sensibilmente aumentato, anche se alcune soluzioni elementari e scolastiche sparse qua e là lungo le otto tracce del full length lasciano veramente basiti per la loro pochezza. Comunque i ragazzi dimostrano dei seppur deboli segni di miglioramento, visibili soprattutto nell’accoppiata di brani iniziale composta da “Hysteria” e da “Selfish I”, due discrete reinterpretazioni del gothic doom death novantiano di matrice albionica. La band dimostra almeno di tentare la carta della diversificazione e della creatività nei successivi episodi. “Burial Ground” tenta di inserire degli effetti che vorrebbero donare al sound un’aura di vuoto lovecraftiano ma che all’atto pratico risultano di fattura scadente; la successiva “Cynoptic” invece ripesca i Crematory e le loro intuizioni industriali su base gothic doom, mentre “Tonight’s Avenue” tenta di miscelare delle tentazioni progressive con un sound decadente e raffinato memore dei Katatonia, per un risultato finale interessante ma decisamente troppo prolisso. La traccia più strana rimane comunque “Dune”, sorta di power ballad dalle tinte “southern goth” che, sebbene non particolarmente riuscita, denota una certa originalità di fondo. Purtroppo per i The Sullen Route, il problema di “Apocalyclinic” – e delle altre decine di uscite simili – risiede proprio nella scarsezza compositiva riscontrabile in ogni singolo episodio. Questo, unito ad una certa abitudine di far durare i brani più del necessario, fa sì che presto l’ascolto diventi incredibilmente tedioso ed infruttuoso. Siamo contenti che i ragazzi abbiano mostrato segni di maturazione, ma siamo ancora lontani da uno standard compositivo ed esecutivo sufficiente, per cui anche stavolta dobbiamo rimandare il pure volenteroso quartetto di Volgograd.

Author: Luca Filisetti

Review
Pest Webzine
8/10

Second full-length album for these 4 Russian Doom Death metallers (they used to be 5 on their debut album as far as I remember, but got rid of the girls playing bass. Their music became less Death Metal influenced on this new album and more open to experimenting with Progressive elements within a Metal that could hardly be labelled as Doom as well, but rather a Dark Metal, a genre that’s getting to rise up more and more nowadays, a genre that allows more experiments and avangardish ideas. Well The Sullen Route combines the old-school (beginning of the 2000s) Melodic Doomy Metal with Progressive Metal touches and still manages to keep a steady and catchy flow to the whole music. The only thing I don’t like on this CD is the overuse of cymbals that become freakin’ annoying at times, but the rest is quite enjoying, a good Amtospheric Prog. Metal album.

Author: Adrian