Review from Pitchline Webzine

Posted by Nick Skog on Tuesday, March 18, 2014 Under: Album Reviews
From: Pitchline Webzine
Published: March 17, 2014
*Google translation of Spanish review

Right from the choice of name (based on the protagonist of a story by Franz Kafka), we can see that this is not a band that likes things conventional. Hailing from Ukraine, began his career in 2008 calling Shards of Silence and after these past five years, have finally released their debut album. The sound of the album is clearly oriented towards the fluctuating land where extreme metal meets the Post- Rock, land, indeed, increasingly more crowded (could be here all reflection about the meaning of the rise of certain trends and their relation to the concept of "fashion", but we'll leave for another time.) The proposed Odradek Room walks, therefore, between the second and melancholic fragility of the first dark forcefulness, predominantly lingering sadness over the fifty-eight minute compact. 

A compositional level, the formula of the group is based on issues of simple structures where premium creating atmospheres of loneliness, isolation and pain from a romantic perspective markedly. This romanticism, in turn, is embodied through the hazy tinkling guitars and melodies that resonate vaporous as a viscous song in which to get caught at the mercy of a seductive and incurable suffering. There are many occasions in which this mental weakness is countered by the force and the own power of extreme metal, as in a passage of songs like "A painting (digging into the cavans with oil)", "Faded Reality" or "River", which emerge you distort guitars, the pace quickens considerably and the raspy voice of Artyom Krikhtenko appears to give more depth and contrast to the sensations and feelings that permeate the listening of this work. I have the impression, in this sense that the balance between the ethereal and introspective side and the more brutal side and torn has been somewhat unbalanced at the end. Moreover, this intense immersion Odradek Room I propose can be somewhat flat in its musical reflected. Let me explain: the especially important to the band, I lyrical section addresses the perplexity, confusion and own existential despair of human beings of a remote fashion simplistic language and images that come many artists. 

I think musicar this vast field is a deeply interesting task and that is where I see that look Odradek Room narrows under siege by the aforementioned romance. A greater variety when music become so complex ideas and thoughts, and so dark, would have resulted in a richer and more substantial result (we did find substance in that topic "A painting ...", where the balance between aggressiveness and melody and nurtured existing range of textures and soundscapes manage to reach the desired level of depth). 

With that said, I must clarify that these reflections do not seek to be punctilious with the sole purpose of finding potential defects in a record like this, but seeking to spin with greater finesse and potential demand greater reality of a work, on the other hand, offers many attractions to be heard and enjoyed. We're talking about a young band, not without talent and creativity, which focuses on a concept and a little commercial sounds with the intention of extracting the underlying surface as usual. If able to print with a darker and abstract to his music, far from a gloomy vision that has already been sufficiently explored in the past tone, I am convinced that their future work will gain a lot worse. 

Rating: 7/10
Reviewed by: Jaime Fernandez 

In : Album Reviews 


Tags: odradek room bardo relative reality doom metal death-doom franz kafka atmospheric progressive post-rock experimental death metal 

 ODRADEK ROOM -
BARDO. RELATIVE REALITY.


Released: March 9, 2013
500 Copies (250 digipack, 250 jewel case)
Atmospheric Death-doom Metal