Black Spring

Misanthropic Art is a one man band from Stavropol of Russia, one of the old bands of the underground scene there as they exist since 1999. “Black Spring” is their eighth album, while apart from the eight full length albums they have released one demo, three EPs, one split and one compilation. Well, this album contains six compositions, the sixth track is a hidden instrumental composition, with about forty five minutes of total duration. Here the band plays chaotic Black Metal in mainly fast pace, with a noise approach which makes the sound different.

The riffs are other times heavy and brutal, other times high, long Black Metal riffs, as also there are some Death passages. The sound becomes quite special by the dirt and the noise aesthetics that it puts out, while I could say that in some parts some industrial influences can be seen. That combination creates a very dark atmosphere which gives to the listener to understand what chaos means. The guitars are clean, they deliver the riffs very nicely and with accuracy and they have much passion. The bass fills the sound well and if you pay attention to the music you will listen to its interesting lines. The drums are programmed in a drum machine, but their programming is quite good that it isn’t annoying and its sound fits to the music. Only in one or two parts their sound is a little dummy without depth, but the parts are so short that you don’t even notice them. The vocals are dirty heavy vocals, reminds of Death Metal, whereas in some parts they become harsh screams full of despair, quite paranoid concerning their style and expression, they fit perfectly to the atmosphere of chaos that Misanthropic Art create. The lyrics are written in Russian but in the cd there are also their English translations which help the listener to understand more of what the band offers. The lyrics describe the destruction of nature and of human race through a chemical war, while other tracks talk about solitude and the hatred to the human race.

The eighth album that Misanthropic Art present us, has good elements, commanding, heavy atmosphere, good structure of the compositions and interesting riffs. Surely it is not an easy album to listen concerning to the sound, it demands the listeners attention throughout the duration of the album, else it might appear repetitive and boring. The noise and industrial influences fits to the band’s sound and they play a very important role to the created atmosphere. Generally I think that “Black Spring” is a good album that because of its strange sound I would suggest to listen to it before you buy.