OLEG MISHIN

One day, the man known to all as the guitarist of CATHARSIS, OLEG MISHIN, decided to start his own solo project. Any solo effort is always a realization of those desires and creative pursuits that a musician cannot fulfill within the framework of their main project. At the same time, we know of many cases where solo projects became the main act -- KING DIAMOND, for example. A fundamental innovation here was Oleg's decision to sing himself, and in essence, this is one of the main goals of his project, since the compositions are built around vocals more than ever. Oleg sings in a fairly soft manner, without leaps into the second octave, excessive expressiveness, or competitions in shrillness with Rob Halford. At the same time, such delivery perfectly suits the album's music. Stylistically, we hear very melodic heavy-power with strong influences of the style once known as melodic hard rock; at times, memories of SCORPIONS albums from the '90s come to mind -- records composed in a similar spirit, combining heavy sound with pop-rock melodicism. Keyboards, flute, and of course guitar solos play a crucial role. The only somewhat disappointing aspect in a number of compositions is the uninspired riff construction. Unfortunately, I cannot speak positively about the lyrical side either -- the texts are far too banal and at times outright primitive. No one argues that simplicity can sometimes be the best solution, but not when there is too much of it. Overall, English would have undoubtedly suited Oleg's music better -- it would have sounded more harmonious and given greater compositional freedom. One hopes that in the future we will hear English-language songs. No one has ever doubted Leo Hao's talent as a designer -- the booklet and release artwork turned out very beautiful, with absolutely nothing to criticize. All in all, this is a very worthy effort -- sufficiently original and executed with quality in every regard. It deserves special mention that the album turned out very cohesive, which for a debut is no small achievement. It's even hard to single out individual songs over others, though compositionally the last four are perhaps the most interesting.