Published: August 7, 2013

Bardo. Relative Reality is the first official release by Ukrainian band Odradek Room, and it is also Their first full-length album. The group performs this music is a combination of melodic death metal and doom metal, and this combination isalso spiced up with a progressive elements. The name Odradek room which the band uses comes from Franz Kafka's short story "Die Sorge des Hausvaters". We can gather from That the sources of inspiration are perhaps a bit more unusual in this case as it is usually with generic cases of metal records. Unfortunately this does not really mean, That the music would be somewhat special or would sound exceptional.

The vocals on this record are quite interesting, Because they work pretty well on some parts, but sadly, most of the times they just do not. To add more to the problem, they have been quite mixed up in the surface, so much That they bothered me. Even though I am not one hundred percent sure That this was not Because of the fact-that my fancy translator tool inside my head does not compute with Ukrainian language one bit, but anyway this time in all the growls and spoken parts just seemed to be too much in the way of the music. That issue with disregarding vocals, sounds wise this album sounds pretty good.

The compositions are not really that great, and even though there are nice melodies and riffs in the background, it just feels like that the band tries too much to ponce about. Anyway, the songs have too much content (read: length) as it is now. Fortunately there Also included are some good moments with the record, like the song Cold Light for example, Which sounds pretty desolate at the parts and makes you wish That the band would have drowned Themselves a bit more into the waters Those desperate for inspiration.