| Ashen Light - The Songs of the Dead/ The Call of the Darkness - 2002 |  More Hate Productions
7/10
After listening to the first album by Ashen Light, I’ve got distracted by the foreign metal scene and completely lost sight of the band’s development. However, my attention was drawn to them by the release of another album Ïåñíè Ìåðòâûõ/Çîâ Òüìû (The Songs of the Dead/ The Call of the Darkness). I found out that after the release of Ïåñíè Âåëåñà (Songs of Veles*) the band ceased to exist. Everyone, except for Alex, formed a new sympho death-black project called Atra Mustum. In the mean time, Alex found new musicians: Father Sergey (vocals) and Katherine (keys), and wrote two albums Ñòàðû Áûëèíû (Old Bylinas, 2000) and Ñëàâåíñêèå Âå÷åðà (Slavenskie Vechera 2001 ã.). The fall of 2002 saw the release of a new album Ïåñíè Ìåðòâûõ/Çîâ Òüìû (The Songs of the Dead/ The Call of the Darkness) from the new Ashen Light.
The band organized a small presentation concert for their album on 26th of October, 2002, which I also managed to visit (see Events). During this concert I was also handed over a copy of this album, which permits me now to evaluate the level of development of the band…
Alex stayed true to black, however, he did try to switch to folk darkwave. The new album is a kind of a return to their origins, lessening the atmospheric part and adding “true” elements. I was quite surprised by the fact that the band had asked the choir of the Russian Orthodox Church to assist them. This looks rather extraordinary keeping in mind the genre of Ashen Light.
Though the overall impression from the CD is quite positive, the piece of work in question has its negative features as well. For example, the bass part is substituted by the keys, the drums—by the drum-machine. On the one hand, this gives the album its “rawness” (making it resemble true black even more), on the other—makes the sound too computerized. So, father Sergey has to distract the attention of the listeners by his wild screams, which he does rather well, I must say. During the concert (26.10.02) Sergey promised that the band was soon to have a real drummer. I really hope that this is going to happen and that the band will not lose anything in terms of the quality!
The CD also has 3 bonus tracks, which the band decided to include. These are 3 live-songs recorded during their gig in R-club (Moscow) on 26 of January, 2002. One of the songs is their own, taken from the album Ïåñíè Ìåðòâûõ (the Songs of the Dead), the other two are rather decently performed cover versions of the songs of Norwegian true-black masters Darkthrone and Immortal.
P.S. My boundless gratitude to More Hate Productions and Ashen Light for the provided CD.
*Veles is a Russian myth character. A god who patronizes riches and animals; the ruler of forests and the animal world.
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Original text by BattleGrim, translation by Demona.
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