Hailing from Ukraine, Bureviy (Буревій = Hurricane) play a modern take on black metal which makes use of old school sub-styles by keeping them relatively uncontaminated but subsumed under the band’s personal voice. In Concealed Beyond the Space we find the folk-oriented black metal with rock sensibilities of Nokturnal Mortum, the swaying of long melodies of Drudkh, and a collection of strumming, tremolo picking and metal riffing that meld as diverse raw material for a black metal language descended and definitely compatible with but ultimately different from the more uniform black metal of old.
This approach is somewhat of a signature among Eastern European and Québécois black metal bands. The phenomenon is interesting when found in albums that manage to channel this almost faceless style into beautiful and meaningful expression. It demands a stricter attention to musical coherence in composition as the link between musical ideas will not be found in stylistic uniformity. Bureviy even makes use of acoustic guitars to decorate or fill passages that at first may feel like misplaced filler. A closer and paradoxically more comprehensive look also shows these passages are in line with the sections they connect and are not gimmicky interludes but articulations, points of exhalation.
A single spin of this will pass unnoticed. It is like a dense temperate forest, you need to get close and see the trees, the rocks and the streams. It takes more time and familiarity with the album to experience what it is trying to transmit. Ancient Slavic nature-worship and the mystic contemplation in tune with the proud mountains, the warm hillsides and the powerful rivers is channeled through Concealed Beyond the Space.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCEuqqGxB9c
Tags: 2015, Black Metal, Bureviy, Concealed Beyond the Space, drudkh, nokturnal mortum, Québécois, Ukraine
David,
This is fucking terrible. Why didn’t you say so?
because I do not think it is “fucking terrible”.
It’s a B-class band, and the album is decent, it’s evocative and it really shines in some parts. And it’s blurry and turdy at some particular points. But overall, it does things pretty well.
It is obvious it is not part of what the crowd here normally listens to, but that does not mean it isn’t good. People around here have their own tropes and their own biases, that’s why you ask for reviews of second and third rate level bands just because their style is similar to the old school or because they make decent Cryptopsy/Deeds of Flesh -style brutal music.
Bureviy is a highlight this MONTH.
“It is obvious it is not part of what the crowd here normally listens to, but that does not mean it isn’t good.”
You’re exactly correct.
What makes this shit is not that it’s “different”, it’s that it’s shit.
An instant fail was the fucking disgraceful emo-core vocals underlying ‘authentic and moody’ folk vocals that were obviously recorded by the vocalist whilst being taken from behind by his ‘uncle’.
So you are making a quick judgement over all the album based on a moment of vocals you did not like?
Look, I had a similar first negative impression on the vocals, but I decided to listen to at least one whole song and decided it wasn’t bad. Then, on listening to the whole album, it was clear to me this was not a bad album at all. It is above average. Not a classic, but a decent album.
The era of sweeping statements based on 30 seconds of music and superficial impressions is over, Roger.
“So you are making a quick judgement over all the album based on a moment of vocals you did not like?”
I listened to the whole song you provided. I was just commenting that an instant disqualification (for me) were the vocals. I wasn’t basing my whole judgement on the vocals. The music itself is a pretty bland, heavy-metalish style of folk-metal. It sounds nothing like Drudhk, at least to me. Give me Autumn Aurora over this any day of the week.
Did I mention the vocals are fucking terrible?
Anyway, I admire your work. I just don’t like the new angle this site has just taken.
I would treat your response more seriously if you gave concrete reasons as to why you think this is bad. I gave a main concrete reason (obviously not the “evocative” bits) as to why I think this does a decent job. As I said, it is not a classic.
Also, I did not say it sounded like Drudkh. Try not inferring what you want to see in what you read, and try to understand what I am saying.
It doesn’t sound like black metal – at all – to me.
It sounds like heavy metal/folk-metal, sometimes played with black metal technique. There is no interesting choice of ‘scale’ as with most good black metal, which is slightly less dissonant than death metal but still ominous. It’s all pretty much ‘bourgeois’ melodic melodies – where the only ‘black element’ is sometimes the playing technique, and, more insidiously, the unforgivable rape-tastic vocals.
As a less-important side note :)
Maybe I was wrong about the singer. He wasn’t being ass-mined by his dad’s mate while recording vocals. He is clearly frustrated about the lack of penis that has been placed in his mouth so far in his short life. Just listen to him wail. I’m picturing him mincing about in the studio with a virile poster of Varg Vikernes hanging on the back of the door for frustrated inspiration.
I had the impression the singer was a girl. It doesn’t sound like a guy.
Gotta see a band picture or list of band members to confirm that, though.
Now this is helpful feedback.
On the heavy metal/folk metal issue, I agree. But for me, these are actually the vehicles of eastern Europe’s “black metal” , including Drudkh and Nokturnal Mortum, which I also do not find to be through and through black metal.
And regarding the atmosphere, you have a good point. And I think this is more of a categorizing problem, not a quality one.
The vocals are poorly performed, there is no argument there.
Now, if you listen to the whole album without thinking “is this black metal or not?”, you may get a different impression regarding its quality. I will listen to this more too, and consider your points.
To reveal something of how I am planning on doing things, I receive a bunch of promos, 90% of which is crap. Utter crap. then some of it is decent, like this. Not very good, but decent. I will release highlights of the month, which will be a selection of the ones that are chosen for non-negative reviews. Out of further selection from these will come the best-of-the-year list.
Yes, it’s a chick screaming.
And, as a Slavic language speaker, i’ll tell you that the clean male vocals are much more stupid and spineless than the female screams. Once the cleans start, it becomes clear that what they’re playing is metalcore. At least in this song.
ok, juxtapose metalcore and this. What makes metalcore metalcore and then, based on that, why is this metalcore?
I’ve used “metalcore” here as an insult rather than a category.
Something that utilises metal technique but is absolutely non-threatening but rather “emotional”, “deep” and “diverse”.
There’s probably a broader term than “metalcore” that could stand for this.
So, basically no basis other than an emotional reaction.
If you could realize how gay the male vox are, you would put another song here.
you are so hardcore
I ain’t attacking you yet you’re trying to defend yourself.
Everything is OK. Thanks for the post.
I haven’t defended myself at any point.
I’ve defended reasonable criticism, that’s all.
It’s a pity you cannot see the difference.
Faggy vocals are faggy vocals, dude. Just like if a band tried to play Suffocation-style brutal death metal with harspichords and pipe organs; it would likely sound out-of-place. We could hear it and say, “this music is not bad but they made a terrible selection of instrument/timbre/texture” and we would not criticizing the music unfairly.
Great argument, man. Be careful, the Russian’s might kidnap you on account of your genius.
I really wasn’t trolling for a sarcastic response. My argument was serious. If my argument was that stupid, you could do everyone a service by pointing out my faults.
Ok. If suffocation had LAME vocals, perceptive listeners would still think highly of the music.
But if the vocals were shitty, they could be fairly judged as shitty. It would detract from the experience overall. Just as if the drummer couldn’t keep time; the full impact of the music could not be felt. This is the situation that we run into with Bureviy.
It detracts, definitely. But I would argue that in this sort of music, it does not detract as much as the drums, which would be catastrophic.
The vocals here are not optimal, but they do carry out a job. Drums that cannot keep time, on the other hand, destroy everything.
Vocals in that Luciferian Rites album were almost as bad, but here they’re coupled with arguably one of the worst sounding languages (sorry Slavs). Has anyone even pulled off screaming vocals without sounding too awkward and unconvincing, other than Vikernes?
Anyway, this sounds like Gothenburg melodeath to me. Certainly not as bad as In Flames though. I’d give it a spin to be honest.
I still see no basis for this accusation beyond the superficial.
It’s not really an accusation and, just to be clear, I don’t agree that they play metalcore (even though melodeath was the basis for metalcore).
But the ingredients for this are the same as (early at least) melodeath: NWOBHM + folkish melodies + black/death metal technique.
You also mentioned Québécois black metal in the review, which usually is closer to Swedish black/death metal than it is to Norwegians.
It could depend on the band and singer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d428uf3d720
http://bandzone.cz/satormarte (FIRST SONG THERE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXZ9OCJ8fx4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvEtAulhIlw
Slavic languages generally sound ugly to me (and most Greeks I think). It probably has something to do with the pronunciation of alveolar consonants (especially l and n) that is associated with the way a “vlach” (“vlach” has come to mean something like “redneck” here and you don’t necessarily have to be of vlachic descent to be called such) speaks. But I realize that it’s just how those people speak and it would never stop me from enjoying a quality release. It’s also preferable to a fake British accent for example.
It’s also true that the hardcorish screaming of this release makes things worse.
Thank you, David, for a heartful and profound review.
I appretiate reasonable criticism as only the latter can lead to more meaningful evolution and self improvement.
Tastes differ. ;)
(p.s. I’m a vocalist and lyrics author of Bureviy)