SYRACH

Over all the long years I've been a fan of contemplative forms in metal, a certain set of stereotypes associated with doom metal has formed. Dark, gloomy covers featuring (as a rule) a tree (a bird, a mournful angel...), a booklet in pale grayish tones, and the sadly pensive faces of band members. In this case, the cover is done in the proper fashion: apocalyptic fire, dark figures with crosses, biblical themes in a grayish booklet, and the thoughtful, slightly detached faces of the band's members -- everything as it should be. The music also stays within the boundaries of the declared style. Aesthete snobs, I'm certain, will inevitably view this as a flaw and start the old refrain about how the genre has died, is stagnating, shows no signs of development, and so on. Well, in their own way they'd be right, but such "trifles" have never yet scared off true connoisseurs of heavy sorrow, despite the fact that the style indeed doesn't allow for great musical diversity. Fans (judging objectively, by my own example) expect from bands exactly what made them fall in love with this music at the turn of the '80s and '90s: that the sound be heavy and crushing, that the guitar tuning be as low as possible, that there be plenty of mid-tempo passages, that the growling be as deep as can be, that the lyrics be as depressive as possible, that the melodies be as dark as they come. Death doom metal should be the kind of music you can reflect upon the meaning of life to, ponder the essence and transience of existence, the futility of all things worldly, and other no less important matters. Well, Syrach has all of this, and you will hear it all on this record. And however much I love everything progressive in music, I desperately hope that this won't touch contemplative metal for a long time to come...