GREAT SORROW - Dreams...Solitude, Silence (Castle Rock, 1995)

Taking a break from Moscow, this time we travel to the Northen Capital with the second LP by Great Sorrow, from beautiful St. Petersburg. Great Sorrow formed in 1990 and are still a band today. A guy I traded with in Russia said that he thinks this LP might be the last record ever pressed in Russia. That's possible, and I think it would be pretty cool if this was true, then the last record to ever be pressed in Russia would be a pretty sick doom LP. Outside of Black Sabbath and maybe Rainbow or something I really don't know enough about 70's rock or psych music to accurately reference and compare this sort of stuff. I guess this is stoner/doom metal with some touches of death (mainly in the image dept.). It's not really heavy, but sporadic double bass is sprinkled in a couple of places along with some heavy-ish riffs and bass. Overall the music here is pretty slow and totally lives up to the title: Dreams...Solitude, Silence (save for the "silence" part perhaps). The vocals drone on in an epic, gloomy, ominous tone. However, one thing that mars this record is the fact that while as I noted the vocalist has a good tone to his voice, he happens to also have a very thick accent and all the songs are in English. If they would have just written the songs in Russian, I think that would've been better. I don't know though, perhaps some people will find the accent cool?

The Moan In Time
The Preludy Of Tears
All My Belief
The Wanderer
If You Run Away From...
The Endless Tragedy
Dreams...Solitude, Silence

SHAH - Terror Collection (SNC Records, 1991)

While Master might have been the first "official" Soviet thrash band, I think that righful honor should go to another Moscow band - Shah. Formed in 1985, Shah played thrash metal with English lyrics from the get-go. The "Terror Collection" LP I have here collects various demo and previously unreleased songs from 1985 through 1991. Musically I'd say the later songs on this is like a solid mix of "Show No Mercy" and "Ride the Lightning" while in the earlier ones (while still being thrashy) I detect a strong Priest influence, check out "Metal Fight", I think it sounds almost exactly like "Defenders of the Faith". The band members for reason unknown crafted themselves "South American" sounding names while in fact they were Russian. A note about this cool looking cover, a friend informed me that the masks on it are from an ad in "Fangoria" magazine. Anyway, check out "The Terror Collection" :

Killing Machine ('86)
Overload ('91)
Damned Sinner ('86)
Age Of Darkness ('91)
Thrashing Metal Race ('85)
Terror Collection ('91)
Masdon Must Die ('85)
Mad Future ('87)
Ashes To Ashes ('85)
Metal Fight ('85)


Shah @ bnrmetal.com (a bunch more info)

MASTER - With Lee On a Neck (Melodiya, 1991)

Master's second LP - "With Lee On a Neck" lived up much more to the "thrash" description then their S/T effort. Here we indeed have fast thrash throughout the album, and unlike S/T there isn't an outright "ballad" present. While being "accepted" and released on state-run Melodiya records, Master unlike Gorky Park stuck to their guns, while the lyrics did reflect something the establishment might have liked to hear (in the case of this album the theme of "peace") the music was not a 2nd rate Def Leppard meets Poison blend but breakneck thrash. Master is still a band today and continues to release albums, their modern material will have to make for another post however. There are 2 alternate covers to this LP. The one I have is the white cover. I don't know which one is an earlier pressing.

We Don't Want
God Save Our Fury


Master @ metal-archives.com
Master Official Site (in Russian)

MASTER - Master (Melodiya, 1989)

While their releases roughly coincided, this is definately not the Paul Speck Master, This Master were sharing members with one of Russia's first heavy metal bands - ARIA, Moscow's Master was formed in the mid-80's to pursue a more "thrash" sound then the Maiden/Priest influenced ARIA. Recording this debut S/T album 1988 and releasing it on state-run Melodiya in 1989, the album was hailed as the first Russian "Thrash" LP however, I think most of the songs on the S/T are just plain old traditional, Priest-influenced heavy metal, save for the title track which is indeed really fast thrash, and an omen on what their second LP - "With Lee on a Neck" would sound like.

Note: Compared to the metal-arhives.com data on the release dates of both of these albums I found a descrepancy. The dates on there are listed a year prior to the one's I've listed. The years I posted come straight from the center label where each year is clearly labeled as "recorded" and "released", ex. in the case of this album the years being 88 and 89.

Master

DEATH VOMIT - S/T (Metal-Agen, 1993)

Not to be confused with the band from Indiana, this DEATH VOMIT was a Moscow band from the early 1990's and this I believe is their only LP. There is virtually no information or lyrics contained with my copy of the LP besides the fact that the members were "Goblin", "Boltrover" and "Pater". The music is death-grind tuned very low, super thick drums, growling vocals, walking a very tight rope between death metal and grind, but leans towards the former in my opinion. Song titles are all in English and from what I can tell are sung in it as well. Interestngly Death Vomit's name was briefly mentioned in the book "Lords of Chaos" in the chapter dealing with sketchy metal out of Russia. But I must note that the song titles don't point to any political affiliation and the mention was rather vague, mainly stating that they were in an ad in some right-wing zine of sorts and that the label was doing it to reach "angry youth" or something along those lines. Regardless, the pure deathly sickness of this LP is undeniable:

She's Dead
The Howling
Death Vomit
Leprous
The Monastic Wall
A Town
The Morn Approach
Mind's Eye


Death Vomit @ metal-archives.com

Back in the USSR: The True Story of Rock In Russia

This is a great book I found at a used book store, it was written by a Russian rockcritic Artemy Troitsky in 1987. A real easy read, it chronicles Russian rock and "alternative" culture from its roots in the "styliagi" jazz of the 1950's to the 1980's new wave and metal bands. A good look at early to mid 80's Russian rock culture and the effects of "Glastnost" on music. Also a pretty insightful explanation on how punk was perceived in Russia and initial reasons it, unlike metal, didn't really take on there in the 1980's. Available @ amazon used for under $2.00. Well worth it. Click the title of the post to go there.

MORTIFER - If Tomorrow Comes (Metal-Agen Records, 2000)

This is going to be the first post in a series on Russian punk, metal and new wave I plan on doing. I don't have all the necessary equipment set up yet to make mp3's from vinyl, so I will start with some slightly more modern, CD material before we move into the the early 90's and the 1980's vinyl era stuff. I will try to post as much mp3's as possible while bandwidth permits, if the track selection is small that means I've just posted highlights.

I purchased this on a whim, mainly because I liked the cover. The music was not exactly what I expected however, instead of Helloween meets Kublai Khan power-thrash which was really popular in Russia, I got nearly 40 minutes of solid "Master of Puppets" worship. Which also makes sense since Metallica was a huge influence on Soviet metal as well - no wonder, huh? There is a Running Wild - "Realm of Shades" cover present, so some power-thrash influence IS there. For cultural reasons, almost every Russian metal album seems to contain at least one token "ballad" and usually that song is the worst track on the album. "If Tomorrow Comes" doesn't break the mold in this aspect, a very long and ridiculous ballad is in fact present and I would say is the only dud here. Overall this is a solid thrash LP, and a decent start to our foray into Russian metal, as we go back in time the quality will only increase, just have to get those mp3's ripped and hosted and we'll be off. For now check out some tracks from "If Tomorrow Comes" and stay tuned.

If Tomorrow Comes
Crematory's Yard
Realm Of Shades (Running Wild)