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I'm surprised to really like this album. On paper this looks dreadful – 77 minutes of Russian Doom/Death – but even just halfway though I was really hooked on this. Wine From Tears are a relatively young band with their debut album, and despite some tepid reviews I find myself really enjoying it.

This is not anything groundbreaking in the Doom/Death canon, as we have the expected mournful guitar melodies, synths, and glass-gargling vocals mixed in with some clean singing. Pretty much everything you expect is here, but Wine From Tears do it all really well, helped out by strong melodies that really keep your interest. Some bands seem to have melodies just because, well, you need to have some melodies in there. Wine From Tears write really good melodies, and they are used well in the compositions to create feeling, tension, build, and refrain. The rhythm guitar sound is dry, but has a nice bite to it, quite distant from sludgy mush. The vocals are unremarkable, but they go well with the rest of the music.

This disc is a little too long, and the lyrics are so mutilated by language barrier issues they are pretty much incoherent; but Wine From Tears come out ahead with strong melodic lines and a real sense of narrative songwriting to create mood. Fans of Doom/Death should absolutely give this a spin.