Odradek Room - A Man Of Silt (CD)

Review
Metal Temple
9/10
01.05.2021

“Painted Mind” is the new album from Ukrainian band ODRADEK ROOM, which remains at the forefront of intellectual metal scene. Stylistically the band's music originates from Atmospheric Post-Metal and Doom Death Metal with elements of related genres. Project's author produced animated clips, which together form a whole psychedelic film with an overarching plot. The album depicts psychological aspect of 'mind obscuring', deconstructing and diving into suppressed states of consciousness. The album contains seven tracks.

“The Room” is the opening song. It’s a short, two-and-a-half-minute opening track. It begins with organ notes, followed by a crushing riff and super-harsh vocals. More keys are added in layers, and it has a very depressing sound. “Breaching the Soul” opens with more ambient keys and light drumming. It picks up pretty quickly after that. Whispered vocals lead to harsh guttural utterances, with thick, open guitar notes. A brief guitar solo comes in, leading to an ethereal passage of Doom, with audible bass notes. Clean vocals provide some diversity. Towards the end, a heavy, weighted sound passes complete with a trippy guitar solo.

“Clarity” begins with more of those organ notes. They are sad and fill the room with despair. Some thick bass notes join in, along with background ambiance. Clean vocals here are sung with anguish. Instead of anger, you feel pure despair in this song. “Can’t Tend a Flame” begins with a full-on assault of angry vocals and aggressive guitars. I love the bass work here from Serhey Kuznetsov. Just before the half-way mark, it slows for just a moment, then a new riff enters. Artyom resorts to some whispers to go along with his clean vocals. It picks back up, with renewed vigor, ending on some pummeling guitar accents and a charming clean guitar fade-out.

“Escape” has a long, ambient opening. Clean vocals have the vocalist contemplating whether or not he can change his fate. The are very emotive and will break your will. “Prayer” is one of two shorter songs that close out the album. It begins with a lot of atmosphere and fills the background with melancholy. It begins to swell towards the end, when light drumming comes in, along with a feeling of hope for the future. “Tree of Time” is the three-minute closer. A ticking clock can be heard in the background, along with the breaths of a ravaged man. Pretty strings combine with clean vocals, sung in harmonies.

Despair, hopelessness, and the feeling that you are alone in this world is what you feel after listening to the album. Doom elements come though strongest for me. They remind me of ENSHINE or SWALLOW THE SUN. The pacing is very slow, allowing the various elements to swell. The themes of different suppressed states if consciousness come alive. Sometimes angry and hateful, while other times more mellow, the tracks a whole is very well done. I felt myself running through different emotions that hit me square in the gut, and the textures they built here are extraordinary. This is a near-perfect release, and they have a new fan in me for sure.

Songwriting: 9
Musicianship: 9
Memorability: 9
Production: 8

Author: Dave "That Metal Guy" Campbell

Review
The Burning Beard
14.10.2017

Coming to us from Ukraine, the group of Odradek Room have readied their sophomore album, and A Man of Silt shows the band delving into a compelling mixture of prog, doom, post-rock, and sludge, with a variety of ways to blend those styles flowing out of every track. Flexing their musical muscles in a range covering slow and melodic introspection up through snarling, dissonant rage, OR continually shift from one blend to the next without making the changes feel anything but natural. The number of instruments they put to use is just as impressive, and like the styles, they’re brought together in such an organic way that their diversity can fly right past the ears. The vocals aren’t quite as fluid with their changes, both both clean and dirty singing is put to solid effect, with enough time spent in instrumental passages to help smooth their presence.
It’s an impressive and ambitious album, and as a sophomore release, all the more staggering for the range OR are able to pull off with few hitches, with a level of depth that issues a siren’s call for listeners to return to it again and again. Give it a go if you’ve been in want of expansive, experimental, and extremely good metal.

Author: Gabriel

Review
All Around Metal
4/5
11.10.2017

Uscito da circa un mesetto, il nuovo album degli americani Mesmur si preannuncia un lavoro prettamente di nicchia e poco incline all’essere commerciale. La recente opera del quartetto, denominata S, è totalmente dedita al funeral doom metal che però nasconde negli oscuri meandri del proprio sound delle piccole sorprese che rendono più dinamica la musica proposta. Pur essendo composto da quattro lunghissime tracce, l’ascolto del disco scorre in maniera fluida senza cedere troppo alla noia.

L’inizio con “Singularity” mette fin da subito le cose in chiaro su cosa si andrà ad ascoltare. Ritmi lentissimi e sfibranti con note dilatate fino allo sfinimento in una sorta di mood cosmico/spaziale caratterizzato da cori apocalittici in sottofondo, growl vocals lontane come fossero un eco, tastiere lugubri e disturbanti, arpeggi melodici cupissimi (mai invasivi e perfettamente inseriti nel contesto) e per finire viene inserito pure in intermezzo psichedelico e sognante. Durante l’ascolto saltano all’orecchio bands come Neurosis (per le atmosfere apocalittiche) ed Esoteric ma già dalla seconda traccia “Exile” le cose cambiano con un andamento più placido dal tocco quasi anni 70’ con tastiere (molto vintage che profumano di film di fantascienza del passato) e chitarre morbide e molto improntate alla melodia, stemperata in parte dal growl maligno. Strumentalmente tutto è minimalista e poco incline all’esplosione o al mettersi in mostra, piuttosto ogni strumento funge a dipingere paesaggi nerissimi ed oscuri come in “Distension”, allucinato viaggio dalle tinte elettroniche con un’aura simil sinfonica contornata dal ritorno delle tastiere sempre più occulte e tetre. Viene espresso quasi un concetto di viaggio descritto mediante la musica che si conclude con la titletrack “S”, una traccia strumentale fatta di echi, rumori, soffocante, visionaria e psichedelica con l’immissione di partiture ambient e di elettronica.

Sicuramente un ascolto difficile e votato unicamente o quasi agli appassionati di doom metal, eppure consigliamo a tutti di concedere al disco una possibilità. La musica dei Mesmur pur essendo massiccia ed impenetrabile, contiene dei piccoli spiragli di luce che potrebbero attirare una differente schiera di appassionati. Consigliato!!!

Author: ENZO PRENOTTO

Review
Power Metal.de
9.5/10
12.03.2018

Melancholischer Prog Metal der Extraklasse

Man hat schon fantastische Symbiosen aus Melancholie, vertracktem Prog Metal und sphärischen Post-Rock-Sounds gehört. Nicht zuletzt Bands wie PAIN OF SALVATION und OPETH haben einer jüngeren Musikergeneration in den vergangenen Jahren Tür und Tor geöffnet und sich an die Spitze einer Bewegung gesetzt, dessen unmittelbarer Einfluss so viel neue Kreativität geweckt hat, dass man schon kaum mehr die Übersicht über all die vielversprechendes Acts haben kann, die in letzter Zeit mit überwältigenden Releases für Furore gesorgt haben. Eine Gruppe, die man in dieser Aufzählung künftig auch nicht mehr vergessen darf, sind die Ukrainer von ODRADEK ROOM, die mit ihrem aktuellen Silberling fast schon das Höchstmaß an kompositorischer Genialität erreichen. “A Man Of Silt” ist verträumter Post Metal mit vielen progressiven Twists, einer Reihe stilfremder Elemente und trippigen, maanchmal beinahe schon psychedelischen Momenten, die bis zu den experimentellsten Gedanken eines Steven Wilson reichen, dessen musikalisches Ausnahmetalent auch an diesen Osteuropäern nicht spurlos vorübergegangen ist.

Dabei ist ODRADEK ROOM zunächst mal eine dieser typischen Prophecy-Bands und könnten eigentlich blind dem hiesigen Label für bewegende Düstersounds zugeschrieben werden. Doch die Ukrainer agieren noch im tiefsten Underground, müssen sich erst noch etablieren, sind mit den acht neuen Stücken aber auf bestem Wege, die Szene in einem Gewaltaktzu überrollen, und sei es nur mit den vielfältigen Emotionen, die sich in den aktuellen Kompositionen verbergen. Vieles wirkt dabei frei improvisiert, vor allem die ausdauernden Instrumentalpassagen, in die das Album eingebettet wurde. Und dennoch verfolgt die Band einen klar ausbalancierten Masterplan, der sich an einem wiederkehrenden Kontrastprogramm aus experimentellen und eindringlich-melodischen Augenblicken entlanghangelt, dabei auf vertrackte, nicht sofort durchschaubare Arrangements baut, zuletzt aber doch die größte Kraft aus diesen bewegenden, OPETH-affinen Melancho-Momenten zieht, die “A Man Of Silt” weitestgehend beherrschen.

Dieses Album ist ein weitreichendes, meist düsteres Abenteuer, das mit jedem weiteren Durchgang noch mehr von seiner schwer zu greifenden Schönheit offenbart. Und ODRADEK ROOM ist letztlich nur ein weiteres Beispiel dafür, dass die Szene in der Ukraine explosionsartig an Bedeutung gewonnen und im europäischen Osten langsam aber sicher die Vormachtstellung erkämpft hat. Ein fantastisches Album wie dieses hat hieran maßgeblichen Anteil!

Author: Björn Backes

Review
Dutch Metal Maniac
17.01.2018

Since 2010, guitarist Ilya Zernitsky, bassist/keyboardist Sergey Kuznetsov, drummer Roman Borovikov and Artyom Krikhtenko, who takes care of vocals, guitars, keyboards and samples, make music together under the moniker of Odradek Room. Odradek Room’s musical style is kind of progressive death/doom metal, but they regularly cross those boundaries. In 2013 they released their promising debut album, called Bardo. Relative Reality. Since October 12th it got a successor. It is named A Man Of Silt and is released as a co-release between Hypnotic Dirge Records and BadMoonMan Music.

So, close your eyes and let the relaxing, dreamy intro Arising In The Void lead you to the world of Odradek Room. A Man Of Silt truly is a great journey through a dreamy, atmospheric world. The basis of A Man Of Silt are atmospheric, often even epic soundscapes. Of course the drums, bass and guitars are regularly present, with Roman Borovikov’s drumming skills standing out the most. Sometimes Artyom Krikhtenko’s vocals are added, which are phenomenal no matter what style. Whether he grunts, screams or sings with clean vocals, in for example the beautiful Texture Of Reality, Artyom Krikhtenko can do everything with his voice!

While Odradek Room’s music is dreamy, it for sure isn’t boring. Variation is very important on A Man Of Silt, with the tempo- and rhythm-changes being present. A perfect example of this, is the earlier mentioned Texture Of Reality. It has a slow, acoustic start followed by a hellish scream and a very nice guitarsolo before going back to rest again. For Odradek Room, crossing boundaries isn’t a problem. They let us hear influences from for example, prog-, doom- and post-metal, but the start of Mirror Labyrinth sounds even a bit atmospheric black metal-like. Another track which is really standing out on A Man Of Silt is the beautiful Rain Trip. Beautiful female vocals can be heard and the addition of a sax, a unique and unusual instrument in metal, is a real plus. After Divide, which is the heaviest and longest track on A Man of Silt, it is time for the relaxing, hypnotic outro Conditional Eternity. When this outro has ended you are finally aware about how fast the past 50 minutes flew by and you probably want to enter Odradek Room’s world again immediately. What an album!

A Man Of Silt is not only a great album, but it is a whole experience on itself. Odradek Room delivers a phenomenal album, very recommended for sure.

Author: Tim van Velthuysen