Overcoming Babel

Two years after their very good self-titled album, Lutomysl return at the ending of 2012 with their eighth full length release called “Overcoming Babel”. For those who don’t remember, Lutomysl is an one man band from Ukraine which was formed in 2001 under this name and since then they are active with a new release almost every year. In “Overcoming Babel” we will find eight Black Metal tracks, of total duration of forty five minutes, in the well-known Lutomysl style. That means mid paced Black Metal with speedy blasts, intensively melancholic feeling and grey atmosphere with the only difference that I spotted to be the decrease of the fast parts.

The riffs mainly are melodic, of mid and slow pace and melancholic while the fast-violent parts full of energy and hate are also here. That usual change concerning the rhythm, the riffs and generally the atmosphere and the feeling of the track makes the tracks more interesting although some riffs are somehow tedious. Regarding the instruments, there is no flaw. The guitars, which are the ruling instrument, they have clean sound, even in the fast parts, something that may make the tracks to miss in their aggressiveness but it make them better in atmosphere and feeling. The bass fills the sound very well while the drums with their very interesting and well played lines, they make the compositions more powerful. The vocals are as you remember them in the previous albums, that is something between harsh Black Metal vocals and screams, quite expressive and with much feeling.

Another mentionable element of the album is its perfect sound. The production is clean, a little bassy, it puts out a very massive sound which at the same time doesn’t lack in atmosphere and feeling. The mixture is flawless and it helps the listener to manage to notice even the slightest detail. Finally, a very meticulous job has been done also in the artwork of the album. Minimalistic paintings in shades of white, black and grey, create images for the tracks making the experience of the listen more complete. The lyrics are contained in the cd and they are written in Russian so I don’t know what they refer to.

“Overcoming Babel” although it has parts which can be tedious, riffs which sounds somehow uninspired, its positive elements outmatch the negative so we have a good album. In my opinion their previous album was a little better without saying that this one is bad or I didn’t like it. The fans of Lutomysl will surely enjoy it as regarding the quality it is almost equal to the previous in the known style of the band. Those of you who haven’t listened to the band before, this is a good opportunity to start from “Overcoming Babel” and discover them. Worth a listen.