Kauan - Lumikuuro - guest review
Kauan - Lumikuuro - guest review
Tracklist
01. Alku02. Aamu ja kaste
03. Lumikuuro
04. Savu
05. Koivun elämä
06. Syleily sumu
07. Villiruusu
08. Syleily sumu [acoustic version]
Guest review by
Marcus June 15, 2009
Lumikuuro begins very timidly, with "Alku" being comprised of light piano and ambient reverberations in the background. While this is not exactly indicative of the rest of the sound to come from this album, it does foreshadow that much of the album will be of a slower tempo, even the heavier, more "metal" parts of it.
The piano work of Anton Belov drives much of the entirety of this album, and is the focal point for many of the songs. One excellent thing that he manages to do is to seamlessly move from mood and tempo while maintaining the listener's attention and keeping each song together as uniform works instead of making them scattered chunks of heavy or ambient sounds. He achieves this by preserving some piano riffs through both heavy and soft parts of the songs which is especially noticeable in "Aamu Ja Kaste", "Lumikuuro", and "Koivun Ela".
As far as musicianship goes, Anton seems comfortable in pretty much any style. He has a very solid deep singing voice as well as a very unique lower pitched black metal vocal style, which he uses more predominantly during the heavier parts but also includes in some of the folkier parts as well. Lyrically, the songs are very naturalistic, but I have read that Belov wanted the lyrics to be ignored and to instead take the vocals as just another instrument in his musical arsenal. Additionally, he is adept at composing ambient pieces with guitar, piano, and Mushnikova's violin. Unfortunately, when Belov does play the more blackened side of Kauan's music, he does so with far less technique compared with his softer creations; his drumming occasionally is off beat while his guitar work is very basic. This sort of cheapens the sound of the album, as it constantly shifts from good folk-doom to only above average blackened folk.
However, it is extremely interesting to hear how much influence jazz has on this album. During the softer interludes on "Aamu Ja Kaste" the guitar work is clearly jazz/blues inspired while on the "Syleily Sumu" songs there is a heavy focus on saxophone, which instantly brings to mind Ulver's Perdition City.
All in all, Kauan's debut Lumikuuro is very excellent even if it does falter a few times as far as musicianship goes. This band shows a ton of promise both for their own musical prowess as well as the slowly growing genres of Neofolk and Folk-Doom. Unfortunately though, Kauan remains rather unknown, and instead are a diamond lost in the vast Russian Taiga.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 9 |
| Production: | 9 |
Written by Marcus | June 15, 2009
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Comments
Comments:
8
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Posts: 297  |
Posts: 297
Oh yes i am surprise ___ oh my god very very good band i can not believe
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Posts: 647 Written by lord artan on 16.12.2009 at 17:04 What's crazy is his second album is somehow much better, and this one is great!
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Posts: 297 |
Posts: 297 Written by Marcus on 19.12.2009 at 09:19 /i think this album better than second album this is my idea
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Posts: 99
Im not shure about drums sometimes looks like synth drums ... wherever ... is a great album, beatiful riythms, voices and synths ... without 100% doubt a piece of true art
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| Posts: 647 |
Posts: 647 Written by omjaimes on 23.04.2010 at 01:53 Its definitely synth or a drum machine, which is why they sound pretty bland/without much variation.
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Posts: 268  |
Posts: 268
I like how the album flows , maybe there isn't much variation but every song is different yet connected with the previous .
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