Band:	The SLoT
Album:	Ин Да Хаос. Re-Play
Style:	Alternative metal, Nu metal
Release date:	June 2020

01. 2 Войны
02. Хаос
03. Кукла Вуду
04. Если
05. Trinity
06. Альфа Ромео + Бета Джульетта
07. Нет
08. Вселенная
09. Страх И Агрессия
10. Система
11. День Закрытых Дверей
12. На Марс!
13. Круги На Воде
14. Бой!

My understanding is that this is a live album of sorts. Of sorts, because it's more like live in the studio, and more than "live in the studio," it's more like each member alone at home recording live in their own studio. It may be a sad development that the pandemic has reduced live music to such a state, but, hey, a new Slot release. That's still good news for me.

The biggest problem with The SLoT's live releases - and the major issue with a potential North American tour that has kept me awake at nights - is that I love every one of their songs. And if I may take a leaf from television to explain, you probably interpreted that statement to mean that I have a lot of favorite Slot songs, but what I said was that I love every one of their songs. I would pay money to see them perform the extra seven minutes of squirming machine noises tacked onto the end of "Real Time" and the precursor to "Люди во сне" that was "Только Бы Прикалывало" from the Бумер soundtrack and the version of "Теперь или никогда" rebranded "WarCraft" on the 4ever bonus disc and "Рисунок на тему 'Вечное лето'" and every other weird thing they've ever recorded. That means that, no matter what they put into the set list, unless their shows are 12 hours long, I'm going to miss at least some songs I absolutely wanted to hear.

With that said, Ин Да Хаос has a respectable selection of tunes. I'm pleased that "День Закрытых Дверей" made it into the set; it seems like a bit of a lower-profile song (although I'm thoroughly detached from this band's fan base, so maybe it isn't), but it's one of my favorites from 2 Wars. Each of The SLoT's eight regular studio albums is represented here, with the exception of F5; strange, as I would have thought that "Сумерки" or "R.I.P." would have lent themselves to this context, but F5 has always seemed like a bit of an outlier in the band's discography. Even the latest album, the very tech-heavy and thoroughly modern 200 кВт, is represented, in part by "Система" and "На Марс!", but also by a complete reimagining of the closer, "Вселенная."

You couldn't call it entirely "acoustic," but this version of "Вселенная" is played on conventional instruments instead of the electronics of the original, and Ghost exchanges his kit for hand drums; with the added tambourine, the coppery-sweet twang of ID's acoustic guitar, and the now-unprocessed group vocals, the song takes on a medieval feeling, a stark contrast to the futuristic studio cut. "Круги На Воде" later gets the same treatment - just flexing on the part of my favorite reinterpretive act, I guess. Whether it's a cover of someone else's song, a re-recording of one of their own, or a remix/collaboration, The SLoT have always had a natural ability to find new flavors within a song and make it their own (again). Even without so drastically altering the arrangements, I'm hearing more bass than I'm used to on some of these songs, and when you throw in the fact that most of the set list predates the start of Nikita Muravyov's tenure with the band (the same can be said for Ghost), this is kind of like hearing a whole new rhythm section. And you can hear right away on "2 Войны" how much ID's playing has evolved since that album - his tone has sharpened from the blunt-force distortion of the early days into an acid razor that's more complementary than overpowering, and he spices up the older tunes with new flourishes and little touches of personality.

Cache and Nookie are both in great voice as well; I think that this album captures a strong performance from everyone in the band, even without considering the suboptimal circumstances under which this was recorded. A great example is "Хаос": what I love about it (well, aside from the fact that it's a great song) is that it sounds like the chorus was written to be almost unattainable for whoever sang it. The track has been released multiple times in various versions sung by both Nookie and Teona Dolnikova and somehow in tracing the path from the 2002 demo (which surfaced on the 15 compilation) to the original album version on Slot1, the 2 Wars re-recording, through the various live versions, and now this performance, they've never "fixed" that - you can hear Nookie and Teona strain to get up there, but they just bellow it out and it sounds raw and mighty. The same is true of this version: Nookie just goes for it. I love it.

I also get to hear "Страх И Агрессия" without the children's choir, which is great - few things zap my interest faster than singing children, with a small handful of exceptions (I still love the studio version, though - see my above posturing). The only other thing I have to mention that wouldn't amount to gushing about tiny details perceptible only to me is that there is a slight echo on a lot of the tracks; mostly vocals, some instrumentation, and while it kind of reflects the semi-live environment, it's also a little distracting and sounds more lo-fi than artful. Still, I would consider that a pretty minor complaint.

As much as this is a review of The SLoT's new release, it is also kind of a self-indulgent ramble about one of my favorite bands - and that's okay, because this is my 300th album review published on Metal Storm, and I'm marking the occasion in my own way. Yay me.