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Two-man bands are becoming more and more like a regular thing in the underground Metal world, especially recording-wise. That's the case with Russian Black Metal act Taiga, consisting of Nikolay Seredov and Alexey Korolev, Nikolay handling everything here except the keyboards.

Music-wise, they are being described as a depressive Black Metal band, which is a pretty accurate description if the vocals on this album are anything to go by. At times Nikolay sounds like he's being tortured in a torture chamber. His screams are inhuman and kind of scary, managing to raise a few body hairs every time when he reaches this level where he sounds he's really in great pain. There's a lot of atmosphere within their music, much thanks to Alexey's clever use of his keyboards. The guys' performance is consistent throughout the whole album and it's filled with depression-ridden, varying tempos that keep things on an interesting.

Call this suicidal or depressive Black Metal or whatever, but Taiga surely knows how to encourage weak minds to cut their wrists. There's no positive chord to be found in their music; the only positiveness can be directed to this duo's brilliant performance and musicianship.

Tortured music for tortured souls? That's what this Tomsk, Russia-based Taiga is all about.