The latest release from this mysterious Russian black metal cult ‘Chernovstvo’. Coming off of their previous demo releases, this their longest release to date. That sort of style they’re harbored is still there. Raw, melodic, and atmospheric black metal that creates a foggy and decrepit atmosphere that draws the listener into its hypnotic gaze. After a little research and some rough translations, I’ve come to find that the band’s name its self translates to something being in its early and unfinished stage, which makes sense looking back on their previous outputs. But this album in particular has a more fleshed out feel to it that really ties it all together.
If you’re even a little bit familiar with this band, you’d already expect the raw and aggressive guitar riffs that blend together to create this ferocious and melodic wall of sound, especially with the added blast beats that never let up through out this release. Much like the previous demos and eps, there’s this sense of sorrowful pride, like a longing for the past or what once was within the music its self. The melancholic and dark atmosphere built all through out this album is something that is almost comforting as it wraps you in its cold embrace. It also makes sense with all of the runic imagery used for their releases. It translates so well into the music its self, having this primal approach to it all.
While not much has drastically changed from past releases, there’s something about this one that feels a bit more fleshed out and fully thought through. Not, as the name of the band entails, a sort of unfinished or early stage of thought. Rather, this feels like more of a fully emphasized message. Something that stands out among the rest and truly gives it their all with each track. There’s also something almost tragically beautiful about this release. As I mentioend before, there’s this sense of lost pride for a time long ago. An ode to the land that they’re from and the state of it now, or maybe mourning the tragic losses over the long history of the region. Either way, there’s this very personal feeling I get from this album despite the very obvious language barrier here. Its all spoken through the emotion of the music its self, and to me that makes me really like this album above all their others. Its easy to make ties and comparisons to other bands that do a sort of similar approach, but I think it’d be doing this project a disservice. They’ve truly been able to create their own unique and very personal sound within the sort of tried and tired genre of that extremely raw and demo quality black metal.
Definitely give this release a listen, I’ve been spinning it constantly since it came out, and quickly became my favorite of theirs. Any raw black metal fans will love this release.