• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Russia's Drama are an interesting black metal band whose sound I've become quite enamored with as of late, particularly when the mood strikes for all things dark and cold. Essentially these guys play a progressive style of black metal, and on As in Empty Grave Drama put forth a veritable feast of cold, calculated, and intelligent black metal.

One of the most striking points of this album is the guitar work, not only is it inventive and interesting, it's bloody ass-kicking too. Throughout the duration of the album the guitar work cascades between tremolo riffing common of the genre, more thrash-oriented riffs, melodic breaks, wild blurs of technicality, and slower dirges. The majority of the tracks are quite long, though very easy to get lost in which works well, particularly in a full album sitting. Highlights would include the excellent "Around the Flame" with its slithering, contriving guitar assault, and the storming "Possessed by Darkness" boasting some lunatic lead guitar work.

On the whole As in Empty Grave is a quality album that gets my recommendation. Reminiscent in places of bands such as Immortal, Shining, Dissection and even Ansur, this album definitely has some crossover appeal and I think not only will it appeal to black metal fans, but progressive metal and even death metal fans too. Of course this has good production, and probably isn't very "true" so some of the more hardcore black metal fans will no doubt find something to cry about. Fortunately I'm not up my own backside, and if you're not I'd give these guys a look in.