SACRIVERSUM

"And do you know what else will happen / Kravchuk will grow very fond of Yeltsin / And give him a submarine / And an oar, so he can row faster..." Remember that little ditty? Now compare it with the penultimate track on "Mozartia" — there is, shall we say, a certain resemblance. In fact, one could write an entire saga about the influence of Soviet pop melodies and rhythms on the work of SACRIVERSUM. Balancing on the edge of synthetic eruptions and death-tinged doom, the Polish outfit operates under the motto: "If we can't win on quality, we'll overwhelm them with years of service!" For a full decade now, various metal magazines have bestowed upon SACRIVERSUM the rank of "eternal warrant officers" and leveled accusations of copying gothic metal overlords CREMATORY. That said, the copy-paste situation on "Mozartia" is not exactly clear-cut. You'd have to be deaf to miss the transparent nods to the "Mission: Impossible" theme in "Count Coloredo"! And some tracks bear such a resemblance to the output of pop provincials TEXAS that you involuntarily start looking around for a radio playing "Europa Plus" somewhere nearby. The sound is ponderous and sluggish, and the same can be said of the infrequent solos. All in all, it's a well-fed sort of obscurantism. You listen to it once — and then gift it to someone on a forgettable birthday.