Band:	Srodek
Album:	Förfall
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	March 2011

01. Echoes From The Past
02. Bleak
03. Förfall
04. Rotboskogens Djup
05. Vågtjärns Svarta Vatten
06. Ödestad
07. Outro

Srodek is a relatively new one-man project formed by yet another depressed Swede, with a not-so-depressive stage name: Nekrofucker. Because Necrobutcher was already taken I guess. The debut album - En Hälsning Till Döden - was one of those "come and go" albums where nobody really remembers it a year after its release... and it certainly doesn't help when you limit the quantity to 100 copies on CD.

But, with a new (more active) label and better promotion, the Nekro is back to his fucking and we're all graced with the presence of Förfall. It follows a pretty typical depressive black metal structure; the overall theme is set on despair and agony, the music is raw and confined to its little box, and the atmosphere aims to destroy the soul.

So why am I not praising this thing to High Heaven? I dunno - probably because it feels incredibly flat. Amateurish at times, even.

I know it's cool to give good production the finger when it comes to this kind of music, but it's also cool to have good bad production. Don't squint your eyebrows at me - it makes sense. Let's start with the vocals. They aren't exactly Bono-caliber to begin with, so I'm not entirely sure why it was decided to have them brought so high in the mix. They completely kill any sense of agony I would have felt had I been able to focus on the instrumentation. Instead, I'm looking at my monitor thinking... this sounds like something I've listened to in the Metal Storm forums posted by some random user looking for help with his black metal project before.

And the instrumentation? Lackluster at best. The songs drag from the opening track, saddled by a "by-the-motions" vibe. When music like this relies solely upon its ability to make the listener feel a connection with the emotions being conveyed, you'd best be sure to have those emotions present. Just because you wail into the mic for 20 minutes and strum a few dissonant chords doesn't mean I'm going to jump off a roof. Instead, I'm left with the bitter disappointment that I still have to live on this fucking planet.

Maybe there's some kind of reverse psychological trolling or irony going on that I'm not picking up on. (Fucking sarcasm, how does it work.)

Perhaps this will pass by unnoticed and Srodek will be altogether forgotten as a one-man project. All that can be said for this is that it does a good job as an aural paint-by-numbers, and sadly, nothing more.