Scarleth - Breaking the Silence
CD Info
2011
Casket Music
9 Tracks
English Lyrics
Scarleth is another Ukrainian band, another in a tidal wave of Eastern European bands that seem to be redefining our concept of that "Evil Empire" Ray-gun told us about, while trying desperately to up the defense budget. And this bunch is nothing if not determined. The music here was largely developed and recorded in 2011, then they spent nearly a year finding a label and distribution outlets. They settled on Casket Music from the British Isles and we finally got the release here. . . it was worth the wait. This is not necessarily representative of any single style of music. You don’t get that all the time from Eastern Europe. They cover a variety of musical themes; they don’t stick to one style. But, what you get is some really strong musical composition, some very strong delivery and a better than average coverage of the other components that go into a full music performance. The vocals here are delivered by Julia Elyashova, not operatic by any stretch but more than competent for this style of music. Interestingly enough, she’s already gone from the band, replaced by another vocalist; I suspect we’ll be hearing from her on the next release. Hope she’s half as good. But, unlike some productions in the femme metal arena, the vocals here don’t dominate. This band is competent across the board, and the production folks take what they’re given and make it as good as it can possibly be. Those vocals, and the English pronunciation is good enough to make an English major blush, are positioned just where they should be, they tell the story but don’t invade the space of the instrumental folks, which leads to an exceptional musical composition. The art work is another plus, I understand it took some time to produce and it shows. This music goes in some interesting directions and the artwork seems to capture that variety in all its glory and magnificence. If you like your artwork in the dramatic and bloodthirsty vein, this will satisfy your demands in spades.
I think you might describe this as symphonic metal, maybe Gothic, but certainly not always. And, you don’t always get the symphonic either. There’s a lot of guitar based material here, and some of it really screams. Hard to really classify, harder still to describe since it tends to have a variety of topics from one track to the next. You almost have to look at individual tracks to get a feel for the classification issue. And, they’re so diversified that you can’t really come up with a median descriptor, us statisticians are somewhat overwhelmed. But, we like it. And there is some flow to the individual tracks. The first two, Broken World and Child of the Forest are good ol’ fashioned rockers. And, if you look at the CD booklet, it doesn’t take long to figure out the message. Broken World is about war, and the graphic depicts a warrior standing over a fallen opponent, with a sword in his chest. You get some of this with the Russian band Arkona, that historical perspective that addresses the ancient battle lore, but you don’t get the graphic too often. The vocal here is pretty much representative of our lovely vocalist, the one on this CD that is. And, as I mentioned previously, it’s pretty easy to follow the story line with that amazingly clear English pronunciation. Child of the Forest seems to follow a similar theme, although this one begins with a more pronounced keyboard symphonic. But, again, the graphic in the book is a bit sinister, a lovely huntress, knife in hand, appears ready to strike. The story again goes contrary to the typical Gothic theme, here the thought is freedom and the music provides a rousing background, heavily influenced by the guitars as the song moves along.
However, as we get to the third track, Crazy Fever, we enter Gothic territory. The pace slows; the sound takes a more sinister tone. We get a more complex music, more heavily keyboard based with both synthesizer and piano sounds. And Julia goes into a darker sound as well, and it may be a more attractive sound. She can do the darkness as well as anyone, and, with the background Gothic driving the action we get an almost epic presentation. The lyrics also take a turn to the Gothic:
Day is dying and Night / Starts dire play
Here comes the Knight / That takes souls away
Scorched and shattered remains / Of a holy corpse
Wretched and lame / Abyss opens the doors
One of the beauties of the Gothic musical style is the use of an expanded range of musical techniques. Of course, you get the keyboard material, the symphonics, that’s usually a requirement and you find it in most of the Gothic, whether it comes from Europe, East or West, or from South America or other places. But you also tend to get a more expanded vocal, at least some significant overlaying of the main vocalist. Hopefully, you get some choral work as well and, in many instances, we expand all that with a male vocal, clean or harsh, the later moving us to a B & B interpretation of the Gothic musical style. Scarleth uses most of this, with the exception of any male vocals. And they probably focus more on a variety of guitar styles to ride over that keyboard background. Of course, the key component, in my opinion at least, is the focus on dark, thematic lyrical work. You get all that in most of the music here, at least after those first two tracks. And, quite a lot of it is relatively lovely.
The Gothic theme, delivered with an almost doom sound, continues with several selections. In The Abyss is another epic sound, dark and mournful. Metal to be sure but with that dark Gothic undercurrent, much of it keyboard based. Again, the lyrics take us to a tortured perspective:
Welcome to the World of Fear / The world that is ruled by the devils
Wake up your mind / You’ll hear the symphony of grief
Here I belong sweet child / Born of the scorched dark Angels
They haven’t seen the light / And will stay with me
There is some diversity of the sound, even the Gothic material. Flaming Angel clearly presents an Eastern oriented sound, both with the instrumental work and with the vocal. Not something you would expect from Ukraine to my way of thinking, but a truly interesting track, something that provides a completely different feel even if the message does meet the requirements of a Gothic production. Oh, and that graphic in the video is taken from the CD booklet, nice stuff, huh?
There is a slight break in the Gothic in those final tracks. If you prefer the straight up metal, World Depends on You will be a highlight. Pounding drums, screaming guitars and a devastating vocal, all over a thundering bass and drums drive the track. You get some filler piano but this one tends towards the more metal sounding, even the lyrics take a break from the darkness to just provide a joyous ride through the wilds of metal.
Scarleth is a little different from some of the Eastern European Gothic sounds. There is a symphonic on most tracks; there is the dark lyrical direction to provide your requisite daily visit to devastation. But, it’s a little less than the standard fare. If I have a concern, it’s that our follow up vocalist might not meet the talent we see on this release. Of course, I could be pleasantly surprised. But, until then, this one should satisfy, more strong work from the "Evil Empire". Who’d a thunk it?
9 / 10
