Without God - Siberian Tunes: Purple Clouds (CD) Digipak

Review
Kaosguards
17/20
17.09.2021

Même s’il s’agit de mon premier contact avec ce groupe russe, on ne peut dire que WITHOUT GOD soit un groupe débutant. Formé en 2008, il a d’ores et déjà publié deux albums studio et un live, ainsi que des formats courts. Faisant suite au EP quatre titres « Siberian Tunes : The Green Light » (paru plus tôt en 2021), ce troisième album semble privilégier le versant identitaire Doom Metal, au détriment de l’étiquette Stoner souvent accolée au groupe.

Les sources d’inspirations semblent notamment issues des années 70, avec une palanquée de riffs qu’on croirait prêtés par Tony Iommi en personne ; idem pour les solos de guitare fuzzy, bluesy, alternant notes tenues et staccati nerveux. Par ailleurs, il règne sur certains passages des effluves psychédéliques de bon aloi, notamment dans le chant hanté dans des échos troubles et des intonations suintant d’un malaise palpable. Par contre, le traitement radical de ces ingrédients de base renvoie ostensiblement au Doom Metal tel qu’il s’est développé à partir des années 80. Je peux vous assurer que, quand WITHOUT GOD décide de se faire lourd, cela peut donner des monstres impressionnants comme le bien nommé « Song Of The Stone » qui écrase tout sur son passage, sept minutes durant, se permettant une splendide éclaircie mélodique à la fin. Car WITHOUT GOD affectionne les formats assez costauds (entre six et presque neuf minutes) afin de permettre le développement des ambiances et de donner toute leur place aux rythmiques épaisses.

Par ailleurs, ces rythmiques lourdes mais tordues, ces structures rampantes, ce chant habité et torturé, représentent autant d’éléments qui m’évoquent par moments les moments les plus intenses des formations Grunge les plus proches du Metal, à savoir ALICE IN CHAINS et SOUNDGARDEN, ce qui élargit quelque peu le spectre.

Même si, globalement, cet album ne va pas redéfinir le Doom, on se doit de saluer les efforts méritoires réalisés par le groupe pour proposer un répertoire, non seulement crédible, mais aussi suffisamment personnel.

Author: Alain Lavanne

Review
Metal Temple
8/10
14.11.2021

WITHOUT GOD is a doom metal band from Russia, who formed in 2008. "Siberian Tunes - Purple Clouds," is their third full length album. They have also released two demos, three EPs and a live album. This release comes just a month after their "Siberian Tunes: The Green Light" EP. I'm not sure if there as any connecting story or theme between the two but I must hear the EP because I'm very impressed with "Purple Clouds."

Being doom, the band's sound is obviously heavy but this album features some truly thick and impenetrable riffage. Often times the guitar and bass just roll out of the songs in huge waves of concrete slabs. I love it. Stoner and psychedelic elements are also presence, mostly due to the guitar solos and vocals. Anton's vocal are loud and proud but can also be smoky and mysterious. His guitar playing, along with Alexander, goes from sludgy groove to Godzilla mega crunch all the way back to glacier slow riffs that are so heavy they are in danger of caving in the very air around them.

"Bad Seeds," combines everything I just mentioned in its opening moments. The atmosphere here is archaic and a little dangerous. Anton's howling vocals are the perfect sparing partner with these inescapable giant riffs. The rhythm section of Ivan's drums Scott's bass steer this ship through these dark, cold and muddy waters. I found myself doing a full body head bang dry heave during the guitar solo, those lead notes wrapping around me while the rest of the band pulls me down. I didn't have to say "please shove a sweet doom riff and psychedelic guitar lick into my ear drums" because the band does it for me on "Escape." Anton's wailing over the riffs hits the sweet spot between being pummeled and hallucinating and the foggy lead afterwards just pulls me in further into the haze. The rhythm section backing the second solo pushes forward, moving the very earth towards the song's end.

"Anxiety," sounds like the love child OF CANDLEMASS, DEEP PURPLE, SABBATH and PLACE OF SKULLS but somehow even more grimly and grueling in its desire to bring about mountainous doom. Anton's vocal rhythm in the song's first half are fire and work with the music—this is a fine example of musicians working together who are on the same page and each respect the other's abilities. This song is faster paced at times with sort biting rhythm work in between the bigger, wider riffs. This works pretty well and gives the song some energy that the drums run with.

What is it like when a bass guitar turns into a monstrous, living thing? I don't know either but the final track, "Winner," seems to know. This tack is dirty and abrasive—just pure filthy. The guitars and drums play off each other here so the song seems surprisingly chaotic in places. The last minute and a half is just stupid good doom metal: slow and grinding guitar with bass and drums that rattle speakers. "Siberian Tunes - Purple Clouds," has made me an instant fan of WITHOUT GOD. Russia is obviously a good inspiration for doom metal and this album is a wonderful creation born from the environment that is appropriately musically heavy cold and bleak as one could imagine.

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

Author: Justin "Witty City" Wittenmeier

Review
Angry Metal Guy
3.5/5
17.09.2021

It might sound strange, but I think the album that really sold doom metal to me was The Devil You Know from the Dio-led version of Black Sabbath briefly known as Heaven & Hell. I was a relatively new metal fan when that album came out in 2009, and I hadn’t yet tasted the depressing goodness of Candlemass or Solitude Aeturnus. But I knew Sabbath, and I knew Dio, making Heaven & Hell a must-listen for me. Being more accustomed to the faster genres at the time, I was blown away at just how sinister slow heavy metal music could be, and I played that record over and over in the garbage truck I was driving back then. In fact, I even blew out one of the speakers in said truck when the first big Iommi chords dropped after the soft intro to “Bible Black.” All of that to say, while I often forget that I love this style, a couple of times a year, an album comes along to stoke the dormant flame of doom in my heart. This is one of those albums.

Hailing from Russia, Without God formed back in 2008 and have released a pair of full-lengths, the last coming out in 2014. Reemerging in 2021, the band have already released a nice little EP entitled Siberian Tunes: The Green Light and have made the interesting choice to immediately follow it with related LP Siberian Tunes: Purple Clouds. Without God play a big, burly style of doom metal that manages to include a pretty large range of influences. Sabbath, Candlemass, Kyuss, Pentagram, Crowbar, Alice in Chains — I hear all of these among Purple Clouds‘ varied setlist, and the band have managed to blend it all into a cohesive sound.

The record kicks off with one of its most powerful tracks, “Bad Seeds.” The song’s main riff is monolithic goodness, and the verses drop into foreboding Candlemass territory. The tortured vocals of guitarist and frontman Anton hover above the music like Johan Längquist’s did on Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, and his solo near the end of the song is just pure stoner/doom goodness. “Escape” follows and dials things down to a sludgy crawl, and “Celebration” blasts into groovier and bluesier territory. The latter really reminds me — from the vocals, to the riffs and lead technique — of Victor Griffin’s (ex-Pentagram) work in his Place of Skulls project, and that’s always a good thing in my book. “Mask” is an absolute bulldozer of a track, its sludgy crawl not leaving an ounce of hope to be found in its wake. For the epic doom purists, “Song of the Stone” sounds like it could have come straight off of a Candlemass classic or off of Crypt Sermon‘s stellar debut.

There are a couple of issues, but they are minor. The band tends to lean into their influences pretty strongly, and sometimes I forgot I wasn’t actually listening to Alice in Chains (“Mask”) or Candlemass (“Song of the Stone”), etc. But when songs are as strong as these are, a bit of mimicry is easily forgivable. A couple of these tracks (“Mask” and “Not a Care”) could stand to be trimmed by a minute or so to tighten the record up, but once again, they’re strong enough to allow for a riff to be repeated a time or two too many. Anton wins VIP honors for his powerfully authentic vocals and guitar wizardry. His riffs are gargantuan, and his leads are packed with feeling — and both are helped in no small part by the record’s organic production. Each song has something great to offer, but “Bad Seeds,” “Celebration,” “Mask,” and “Song of the Stone” are particularly righteous.

Forget what you’ve heard about Russian erection interference because the grooving riffs on Siberian Tunes: Purple Clouds have aroused my doommember and left me satisfied and smiling. Without God have pole-vaulted themselves onto my doom band watchlist, and I hope I don’t have to wait another seven years to hear what they do next.

Author: HOLDENEYE

Review
Powermetal.de
7.10
01.09.2021

Gewöhnungsbedürftiger, dafür aber unverwechselbarer Gesang

Das Format scheint dieser Band aus dem Großraum Moskau ans Herz gewachsen zu sein. Mit "Siberian Tunes: The Green Light" offeriert die Truppe nämlich bereits zum dritten Mal eine EP. Zusammen mit zwei Studio-Longplayern, einem Live-Langeisen sowie diversen Demos und Split-Veröffentlichungen ergibt das eine überaus reichhaltige Diskographie, auch wenn WITHOUT GOD bislang in erster Linie als Live-Band hat auf sich aufmerksam machen können.

Die Energie ihrer Konzerte hat das Quartett für seine aktuelle EP aber offenbar ganz gut konservieren und im Studio umlegen können. Die insgesamt vier Songs erweisen sich nämlich als durchweg druckvoll und lassen auch die entsprechende Heftigkeit nicht vermissen.

Das ist zwar bei den verhältnismäßig hurtig vorgetragenen Tracks 'Праздник' (Urlaub) und 'The Green Light' weniger verwunderlich, sehr wohl aber beim doch eher schwerfällig intonierten Opener 'Нет Сил' (Keine Kraft), der auf simplen Stoner/Doom-Riffs basiert. Auch das ein wenig sperrig geratene Finale 'Не Беда' (Kein Problem) hat ausreichend Wucht zu bieten und kommt zudem mit einer hypnotisch wirkenden Psychedelic-Schlagseite aus den Boxen. Live sicher ein Killer!

Dennoch eher die Ausnahme, denn die Formation fühlt sich vorwiegend im Doom Metal und dem Stoner Rock wohl und überlässt dem Zuhörer eine genauere Genre-Zuordnung. Elemente aus beiden sind auf jeden Fall in allen Nummern auszumachen. Als etwas gewöhnungsbedürftig, aber definitiv sehr originell und unverwechselbar, erweist sich die Tatsache, dass der Gesang mit Ausnahme des Titelsongs in der Muttersprache vorgetragen wird.

Nicht zuletzt durch die hart und grimmig wirkende Aussprache klingen die langsam vorgetragenen Passagen besonders emotionsreich und der bereits erwähnte Eröffnungstrack besonders intensiv. Wer in den genannten Genres generell sein Glück findet, wird wohl auch WITHOUT GOD zu schätzen wissen. Vorausgesetzt natürlich, man ist nicht zwingend auf englischsprachigen Gesang eingeschworen.

Author: Walter Scheurer