Customer Reviews

Transkarpatia

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

On rare occasion, I stumble on a band I've never heard, that has exactly the sound I've been looking for for years. I have always enjoyed female fronted metal acts, but I have generally found them somewhat too soft and syrupy to be totally fulfilling. Darzamat provides an alternative to this, blending a much darker, more aggressive overall tone with rich melodic interludes to find a seductive middle ground between a fem fronted goth outfit and an extreme metal act.

Darzamat's sound is anchored by Golem's excellent drumming. While not overly technical, he lays a tight foundation of double bass work interspersed with thrashy accents and mid paced fills. Keyboards and guitars work closely together to drive the song structure. The guitars frequently stick to a crunchy monotonic rhythm pattern and let the keys add the melody, but there are plenty of hooky riffs, trem picking, occasional tasteful leads, etc. thrown in to keep things fresh.

If I were to judge the band solely on the instrumental performance, I'd have to consider them a moderately successful, less epic spin on something like Dimmu Borgir. However, the vocal performance really sets this band apart, and makes this album a keeper. Nera's voice is beautiful, and amongst the most thick and powerful in the genera. Her delivery is exceptional and ambitious, adding somewhat dissonant melodies to some sections and following them with beautiful harmonization, providing a fine balance between accessibility and edginess. Her range is excellent, and her thick accent adds an exotic twist. Backing Nera up is Flauros, providing a further harsh counterbalance to Nera's beautiful harmonies. Flauros' vocal delivery is very reminiscent of Dani Filth, although he lacks Dani's high scream. Rather than simply providing a nod to extreme metal like many of the male vocalists in this genre, Flauros' performance is abrasive and featured prominently.

The songs are relatively short for this brand of symphonic metal, ranging from 3 to 5 minutes. Fortunately, the band avoids the pitfall of formulaic song structure that concise songs often corral musicians into, with many songs providing unexpected twists. Most of the album's diversity is driven by tempo variation within the songs. The pace is pretty consistent, beginning with mostly faster tempo pieces interspersed with a couple short keyboard instrumentals (which are fairly unremarkable). The overall pace slows slightly towards the end, concluding with the dirge-like "Tribute To....". The oddball tune is "Letter from Hell", a spoken word piece in which Nera plays both accused witch and inquisitor. While haunting at times, parts of it come off as a bit corny, and her thick accent works against her here more than elsewhere, making it difficult to understand some lines. While they don't pull off this ambitious song too effectively, it's a rare exception in overall quality album.

I originally found Darzamat a little difficult to comprehend as not only were beautiful and haunting female vocals present in the Metal, but there is also a Dimmu Borgir styled Black Metal vocal presence. The combination of the two makes for a unique dynamic across the length of the album and is sure to make a few more people aware of this band, and what they bring to the table. Hailing from Poland, this group has been around since 1995 and with "Transkarpatia" seems to have matured and raised the quality of their sound from samples I heard from the bands past. The female lead is Nera, and she haunts the tracks like a dark siren while Flauros (the male/Black Metal lead) growls in answer to her. The result is unique because under all of the back and forth singing the band is thunderous and truly bringing some great Metal to life. According to their website, the name Darzamat itself refers to a spirit guardian of the gardens and forests. I have to say that I enjoyed most of the tracks after only a few listens, with special focus being on "Vampiric Prose", "Hallucinations" and "The Burning times". The production and sound on the album is top notch and it is perhaps due to the assistance in this area by Andy LaRocque (guitarist of King Diamond). It is an album that fans of both Arch Enemy and perhaps even Cradle Of Filth should look into based on some of the intrinsic similarities in style. It is a creative piece and definitely brings you into their world on every track. A booklet with lyrics and photos are included to get a better grasp of the subject matter and it never hurts when it's a band that has an interesting presence. There are a couple of weird moments on the release such as "Letter To Hell" which is mostly talking in a number of voices by Nera, as she acts as both Accuser and Accused during a witch trial. It completes and leads into "Blackward", which is a very Arch Enemy inspired track. If there is a downside to the release it would have to be in the very apparent and far too numerous instrumental segues that lead into not one but three of the numbers. While they do tend to build up a little mood for this type of band, it would have been nicer to use the time on an additional piece of music. In truth, the closer track "Tribute To", is one of these as well, and is a bit on the eerie side and a strange way to close the album. The group stays in character in name as well, as Chris (guitar), Spectre (keyboards), Bacchus (bass) and Darkside (drums) round them out. This is a high recommendation, despite my finding too many intro parts - I think this group has a potentially bright future ahead of them so be sure to check them out.

Darzamat is a band that is little known even by the better part of the Metal scene let alone the rest of the music lovers worldwide. Though those that know of them are aware of the pleasantly odd mixture of moody Goth and atmospheric Death Metal that ensues on their releases. The band uses the Beauty and the Beast style of vocals made popular by Theater Of Tragedy and other more aggressive Goth bands. Transkarpatia is easily Darzamat's heaviest and most chaotic release to date. Once upon a time they were simply a Symphonic Metal group with hardly anything differing them from hundreds of similar bands, thankfully they evolved over the years and now have defined their own sound.

Tracks such as 'Vampiric Prose' have shredding guitar patterns backed by pummeling drums and powered by the eerie keyboard arrangements. This style is originated further with a chaotic style of back and forth vocals between the clean haunting female and the deep gutteral male that make them stand apart from other groups that utilize this style. The male vocals as other reviewers said aren't far off from Dimmu Borgir's Shagrath or at times even Dani Filth of Cradle Of Filth. The female vocals aren't overdone as many bands in the Gothic realm tend to do, they accent the male vocals and on tracks like 'The Burning Times' she often uses simply tranquil "Ooh's" and "Ahh's" to deepen the melody.

Songs such as 'Letter From Hell' and 'Virus' slow things down a bit and harbor Darzamat's origin's as an Atmospheric Gothic Metal group. On these tracks Nera (the female vocalist) uses both her haunting melodic singing voice and eerie audible whispers to set a darker atmosphere that any fan of the Gothic scene will adore. The album itself is in three parts, with an intro for each part. The three intro songs 'Sanguinarius', 'Inhumatus' and 'Araneum' are instrumental tracks and contain no lyrics nor vocals. All three are Keyboard driven arrangements in which flawlessly lead into three of the albums heaviest and most stood out songs.

After having listened to the album from beginning to end several times I am in awe that this album isn't getting more attention. It is easily Darzamat's masterpiece to date as musicians. The unique signature style should be enough to bring in a plethora of both Metal and Gothic fans a like. I myself am more a Metal fan then a Gothic fan, but appreciate and respect musicianship of this caliber. If you are still not sure if this is your cup of tea I advise checking out the music video for the album's only single 'The Burning Times' which can be found on the bands official You Tube and also other tracks can be heard at the bands My Space. This album is a flawless presentation of a band mixing to genre's the only album that compares is the equally talented Deadlock's Wolves which uses a similar style of male and female vocals, but is more Death Metal then Gothic. When comes down to it, if you are open minded and like originality when it comes to music get this album, it is one of the most unique experiences I have had the pleasure of listening to in some time.

I hope that my review helped in your purchasing of this album. If nothing else I hope that it talked you into looking further into this band. If this album is to your tastes the following might also capture your interest. If my review helped or interested you at all please hit the button that rates my review positively. Thank you for reading.

Aegis by Theater Of Tragedy

Epilogue by To/Die/For

Wolfheart (2 CDs) by Moonspell

Wolves by Deadlock

-A loyal Darzamat Fan