The music from Olhava in general, and on this new album in particular, has the sense of the epitome of unhindered flow of consciousness.
Of course, it is not unhindered – it is very controlled, structured with its many layers of guitar sounds, distant vocals, bass, and impressive drumming. It is emotional music, developed over the years to be immersed in. And when the listener is bathing in it, it is the listener’s consciousness that then flows effortlessly.
This is the seventh full-length release from Olhava since its inception by Andrey Novozhilov in 2016. The same year, a single was released with him as a sole member. On the second full-length, Ladoga, in 2020, he was joined on drums by his bandmate from TRNA, Tim Yusupov. Over the years, they have honed their genre-defining Blackgaze, seeped in Atmospheric Black Metal, to perfection. With mature releases, Olhava seems to reach yet another pinnacle with each new album. And with this last one, they have once more recorded another preeminent triumph of musical creativity.
With a distant relationship to Black Metal, they elevate their previous achievements with the help of ever-present sound engineer Mikhail Kurochkin, churning out ambient and cosmic music fluctuating with an abundance of mesmerizing melodic themes. With long tracks and albums lasting up to 90 minutes, this music is nothing but meditative and expansive. It has the strange ability to function as a background when you are doing other things, but also to completely get lost in it and leave consciousness behind.
Between most of the main tracks on all albums from Ladoga and onward, there are Ambient tracks that serve as interludes. They are called “Ageless River“ and are numbered from “I” on Ladoga onwards and now open this new album with “Ageless River X“ as the previous album, Sacrifice, ended with “IX”. These interludes serve as waterways streaming “fro and to” the other tracks. They fuse into the main tracks, and these again glide seamlessly into the interludes. The latter freely connect this album to the previous five.
The dominant feat on the album is how the guitar effects are pushed and led by the expansive drums that are versatile as they vary between blasting in contrast to the ever flowing sounds to using the whole drum set to create dynamics, but also sometimes leisurely following the path of the sound effects. The electronic effects from the guitars are saturated in ambient and atmospheric sounds with an abundance of lushness, and the drumming makes it powerful and diverse. The blast drums open the first long track, taking the lead as the sounds swell and distant screaming vocals are immersed like an instrument in itself, opening with lines “I’m left alone, no one around, only dates and calendars / and the memories of those I should have irrevocably forgotten.“ (translated from Russian with Google Translate as are the other quotes). The drums signal subtle shifts in the massive ambient course as it changes between blast, rolling the drumsticks all over the drum set, and also holding a steady beat. Below all this is an undulating bass following all the subtle changes in the music. It is as emotional as it is introspective, as the melodies swell in what becomes a long soaring crescendo.
“When the Ashes Grow Cold” continues the passing sounds and develops the music further into new monumental atmospheric sonics with soaring melodic themes driven forward by versatile and heavy drumming. The surge of the expansive cosmic music is immense as it gyrates skyward, driven by drums and cymbals. Subtle shifts and new rhythms form new reflective themes until it all begins to spread out, embracing distant screams and surging until it meets the heavy drums that push it towards the end of the track.
After the ethereal sounds of “Ageless River XI”, ”Memorial” emerges from it with a swell of patient rhythms, joined by a melodic bass heartbeat throbbing below the music. The sounds resemble a giant choir ascending from the musical flow. Melodic themes are formed as the stream of many sounds, including the choir, gush onward to yet another sonic territory. It surges forward to embrace distant screaming vocals carried by versatile drumming, part blast, part steady rhythm. ”We dreamed of living / we didn’t want to die / we loved and hated death more and more each time”.
The album’s penultimate song, “The River Wakes”, soars from the previous track, “Ageless River XII”, with bass-ladden ethereal sonics flowing forward. This track also purveys a sense of choir in the sound as it forms the delicate themes that are a trademark of Olhava. The sonics here are lighter, with fast and buoyant drumming as it cascades onward. It is a levitating listening experience, intense and immersive until it pans out with a mix of distorted and clear sounds, inducing a meditative state of mind and music until the drums tighten it all back together with an energetic rhythm closing in on blast beats contrasting the slow sounds surrounding the drumset, and screams: “Spring has come / the stream roars with the spring flood / and last year’s leaves / run past / tree roots / banks /to the river“. The drums evaporate, and the sounds are fused with the closing track, “Ageless River XIII” with meditative, vast sounds gradually fading into the void.
