Review from Nocturnal Cult Webzine

November 4, 2012
From: Nocturnal Cult Webzine
Published: October 23, 2012
Original Link

Black doom sweeping across your eardrums with strokes of forlorn atmosphere draws you under like the icy waters of the windswept sea. Those are the images and feelings that I am immersed in as a drink in fully the new album from Russia's Epitimia. A late night chill lingers in the air over the stark instrumentation of Reminiscentia. A solitary guitar melody and tormented shrieks work in unison to create a desolate, nostalgic feeling within the listener. The guitars pick up and a subtle nod to Katatonia can be discerned. Beautiful and fragile guitar lines summon comparisons to the sorrowful moods of The Cure on Epikrisis I: Altered State of Consciousness. Gravelly vocals scrape across the texture of the song and become more intense as the pace quickens and full on black metal passages conjure the darkness within the listener. Epikrisis III: Megalomania has a very similar riffing pattern to the style created on Katatonia's Brave Murder Day. The track then drifts into a period of trilling guitar that drops out in a bass guitar that wallows in life's futility before picking back up on the main riff line of the song. As the album gets deeper into is full playing time, the Russian lyrics become more pronounced as is evidenced on Epikrisis IV: Jamais Vu. A laid back, trippy vibe gets your toes tapping on the jazzy Epikrisis V Rorschach Inkblot. More ghostly, trilling guitar passes like a shadow before the track lifts into slowly swaying black metal riffs. DS: Schizophrenia begins with beautiful guitar plinking that instantly brings to mind parts of Tiamat's Wildhoney album. A fever induced deathly riff arises from this calm abyss to paint the song like a nightmare. The bursts of layered vocals and laughter add to the sense of dementia. If your heart seeks comfort in sorrow and gloom then you need to wrap it within the folds of Faces Of Insanity. 

Reviewed by: Bradley Smith 
 

Review from Black Belle Webzine

November 4, 2012
From: Black Belle Webzine
Published: October 11, 2012
Original Link

 Russian trio Epitimia deliver their third full length album 'Faces Of Insanity' for the prolific and always interesting Canadian label Hypnotic Dirge Records which for an outfit birthed only four years ago in 2008 makes them relatively prolific themselves as well, almost putting out an opus for each year of existence. 

The band, comprised of Alexander Machtakov (going as A. here) on guitar and bass with the obscurely monikered K...

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Review from Aristocrazia Webzine

November 4, 2012
From: Aristocrazia Webzine
Published: October 7, 2012
Original Link
*Google translation of Italian review

 The Russians epitimia passed recently on our site, we interviewed them in the expectation that was published the third act of their discography "Faces Of Insanity". The album was released through Hypnotic Dirge Records and contains nine tracks that move in different territories drawing on a view that seems to collimate the feelings expressed over the years by such act Katatonia, Drudkh, Burz...
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Review from Les Eternals

November 4, 2012
From: Les Eternal
Published: September 19, 2012
Original Link
*Google translation of French review

According to a recent survey conducted by the Institute for the Study winter, Extreme Metal's favorite subject matters are: 1) death and hell (54.66%) , 2) depression, loneliness and madness (44.24%), 3) matches the France national football team (1.1%). The Russian trio epitimia has not opted for the latter theme is by far the most terrifying, but for the second. The name of their third album, Faces...

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Review from Headbang Magazine

November 4, 2012
From: Headbang Magazine
Published: September 10, 2012
Original Link
*Google translation of Italian review

It 'the perfect opener instrumental Reminiscentia to do the math with some thought. In this case, to make a mea culpa interior because they never knew before this valid entities Russian by the name of epitimia. Ours are around since 2008 (first album in 2009) and come with Faces Of Insanity third effort in the long run (supported by the ever attentive to the "underground movement" Hypnotic Di...

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Review from Deaf Sparrow Webzine

November 4, 2012
From: Deaf Sparrow Webzine
Published: September 10, 2012
Original Link

Essentially, this is post-rock with black metal vocals and that’s that. Key word being ’essentially’ and not post-rock, nor black metal. Obviously, the weight of the music balances everything out to that mopey (post-rock) genre and the vocals, largely the only black metal element, do not really balance the record to the metallic camp, but offset the overall result. The reason for this being the rawness of the vocalist...

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Review from Nocturne Magazine

November 4, 2012
From: Nocturne Magazine
Published: September 4, 2012
Original Link
*Google translation of Serbian review

Trio Epitimia of Saint Petersburg has released its third studio album "Faces Of Insanity", more complex and darker than its predecessor. Release Panel composed of nine songs with an excellent mix of atmospheric post-rock-and depressive black metal, it is ideal for those who want to experiment with new sounds. Since our opening instrumental "Reminiscentia" create a bit creepy atmosphere and pre...

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Review from Lords of Metal Webzine

November 4, 2012
From: Lords of Metal Webzine
Published: September 1, 2012
Original Link

There is a school of thought that says that black metal has to be mean, grim, depressing, hateful and that it never can be beautiful and hypnotizing. To those who adhere to that school of thought I would like to say: Stop reading because ‘Faces Of Insanity’ by the Russian Epitimia from Saint Petersburg is not for you. Anyone else who can appreciate beauty in black metal and has melancholy high on his wish list I urge to ...
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Review from Global Domination

November 4, 2012
From: Global Domination
Published: August 30, 2012
Original Link

I saw this shit being tagged as ““atmospheric black metal/post rock”, from muthafucken Russia. I have never heard ““atmospheric black metal/post rock” before but understand from the composition of those genres that this is bound to suck on at least a couple of levels. Not just one. 

You know what? I was correct, didn’t need too many listens to this crap to come to that conclusion. Instead of going into analyzing mode I...

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Review from Lunar Hypnosis

November 4, 2012
From: Lunar Hypnosis Blogspot
Published: August 29, 2012
Original Link

Formed in 2008 within Saint Petersburg, Russia, Epitimia is the collective work of Alexander Machtakov (guitars & bass), K. (vocals) and M. (drums) and 'Faces of Insanity' is the bands third full-length release. 

Featuring lyrics in their native Russian language, Epitimia offers up a strange variation of black metal that has its fair share of depressing qualities, but also a strange sense of deep beauty buried within as well a...

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 EPITIMIA - FACES OF INSANITY

Released: July 14, 2012
500 Copies
Atmospheric Black Metal/Post-rock