From the cold of Siberia, Istina (transliteration of Истина) are a depressive black metal duo formed in 2007 and present themselves with an elegant black digipack that includes a booklet with the lyrics, all in Russian: it is Poznaniye t'moy, their debut album released in 2014. Unlike the artwork, the musical production is much more essential, but, as already mentioned somewhere else, this is part of the conventions of the genre. A very appreciable point, though, is that, unlike many of their colleagues in the depressive black metal scene, the sound of the drum programming is not overly synthetic.
The music of Istina is characterized by a kind of minimalism that makes use of few elements to obtain an obscure and oppressive atmosphere. One also has to say that this band is not cloying at all. A hallmark of the style of Istina is the clean guitar backing the riffs in distorted guitar; this device, however, is used almost constantly from beginning to end of the album, so that in the long run it loses some of its originality. The Russians guys sometimes increase the pathos with mid-tempos, but this device is a bit overexploited. “Razorvat' okovy navyazannogo” has the only blast beat section of the album but it otherwise repeats things already heard in other songs, and it is a song that lasts almost 12 minutes. The clean chords at the beginning of “Bezgranichnost' absolyutnogo bytiya” are very dreamy, but, once again, that’s it, even if this theme returns towards the end of the song.
Unfortunately Poznaniye t'moy is a bit too repetitive and proves to be flat and monotonous; moreover this monotony is often prolonged in songs that last between 7 and 11 minutes. All in all, Poznaniye t'moy has a bunch of good moments but is generally unimpressive and not engaging.
Notes:
Познание тьмой (Poznaniye t'moy) was self-released on October 13, 2014.
The music of Istina is characterized by a kind of minimalism that makes use of few elements to obtain an obscure and oppressive atmosphere. One also has to say that this band is not cloying at all. A hallmark of the style of Istina is the clean guitar backing the riffs in distorted guitar; this device, however, is used almost constantly from beginning to end of the album, so that in the long run it loses some of its originality. The Russians guys sometimes increase the pathos with mid-tempos, but this device is a bit overexploited. “Razorvat' okovy navyazannogo” has the only blast beat section of the album but it otherwise repeats things already heard in other songs, and it is a song that lasts almost 12 minutes. The clean chords at the beginning of “Bezgranichnost' absolyutnogo bytiya” are very dreamy, but, once again, that’s it, even if this theme returns towards the end of the song.
Unfortunately Poznaniye t'moy is a bit too repetitive and proves to be flat and monotonous; moreover this monotony is often prolonged in songs that last between 7 and 11 minutes. All in all, Poznaniye t'moy has a bunch of good moments but is generally unimpressive and not engaging.
Notes:
Познание тьмой (Poznaniye t'moy) was self-released on October 13, 2014.
| Tracklist: 1. Создатель (Sozdatel') 2. Глоток сознания (Glotok soznaniya) 3. Безграничность абсолютного бытия (Bezgranichnost' absolyutnogo bytiya) 4. Пронзая сомнения самоопределения (Pronzaya somneniya samoopredeleniya) 5. Познание тьмой (Poznaniye t'moy) 6. Оставляя смерть позади (Ostavlyaya smert' pozadi) 7. Разрывать оковы навязанного (Razryvat' okovy navyazannogo) 8. Безнадежность (Beznadezhnost') 9. Искры (Iskry) 10. Взгляд (Vzglyad) | 02:50 07:12 03:26 09:03 08:36 07:00 05:28 11:27 05:03 08:44 01:08:49 |
Personnel:
N.: Guitars, Bass, Programming
M.: Vocals, Guitars
N.: Guitars, Bass, Programming
M.: Vocals, Guitars
Text by Herjann
[email protected]
[email protected]