Soaring, lucid vocals upon a flow of darkened Atmospheric Black Metal-inspired sonics.
I first came across this female band when she took part with her emotional, crystal clear ebbing and heaving vocals on the latest album of Remaining Warmth, one of the bands of TRNA & Olhava´s Andrey Novozhilov. I headed over to her Bandcamp site and found some singles and an EP, and was immediately captivated by how she mixes her strong angelic and ethereal vocals with darker elements, be it Blackgaze, Dark Ambient or Atmospheric Black Metal.
The woman behind the band is Maria Azanova, who formed the one-woman band in 2022 in the Southern Urals in Russia. She is joined on this release by instrumentalist Nikita Sapogov. Together, they have created a captivating and emotional album based on Slavic folk motifs and singing style, with harsh vocals in harmony with crystal-clear ones. In the way the surrounding music works, there is a lot of dark ambience, with strong whiffs of Blackgaze. The guitars are, in a way, translucent in their distorted riffing, but also have that hint of coldness that is a signature of Black Metal. And the drums are not there to suck the air out of the music by way of blast beats; even in the blasting modes, they give structure and depth to the music, together with the bass.
Each song is built around the strong, soaring verses by the tandem with melodies hovering above the blasting Black Netal sounds swelling and sinking below. On “Oh, Not A Cuckoo”, there are pauses with vast synth effects that mold into distorted, flowing guitars supporting the vocals. There is a turn and elongated pause before the music fuses back and swells with the impressive, melodic, clean vocals. A duet with growling vocals begins, both sides holding the melodic theme as the distorted music flows below them like a dark river, while they are soaring above. The music simmers down to a wide melodic and ambient soundscape with a captive blackgaze sense.
On “Sviatki” she also exhibits the immense range of her vocals as Dark Ambient sounds slowly build upwards with bright harmonies before the heavy metal music commences and the rhythm section begins to rumble and thunder below the guitars and clear, shining vocals. There is a swift change to harsh vocals while the soundscapes become more bass-induced with synths circling in the sonics. It is astonishingly engaging when the music goes back to the melodic theme, but still developing the song further upon the layers of blasting Atmospheric Black Metal parts. The pace increases, and the melodies unfold with synths hovering together with the angelic vocals.
There is a kind of breather in “White Birdie” which is a meditative piece of music with vocals drifting buoyed upon Dark Ambient melodic sounds. It is tender and delicate and displays a singer with full control of the range of her glorious and impeccable voice. Toward the end, you can visualize the white bird fluttering its wings and flying away into the next song (rightly called “Fly Away”), where an acoustic guitar fades in together with the vocals. Drums appear at a slow pace, but soon the guitar emerges, and the music swells, and vocals soar and hover elegantly above the dense music together with synths. It mellows down, and there are hints of folksy elements in the sounds from the acoustic guitar. The music surges once more with a sense of crescendo as the vocals sing in gentle harmony, expanding the music, painting a vast canvas of elegant and tender sounds above distorted guitar and elongated bass licks with drums holding a steady pace.
On the song “On The Other Side” the singing is intense and fast as the multilayered music is fusing synths, bass, drums, and a guitar that surges before it gives way to multiple sound effects, disturbing sounds, and whispering vocals. The synths take over and elevate the sounds until it is merged with distorted tremolos and the folk-inspired bright vocals. The dark ambience continues through “Ocean - Blue Sea” where sound effects float into your eardrums and are soon merged with distorted guitar and rumbling drums, and a melodic bass with synths joining the soaring vocals that contrast the distorted music. The vocals rise and become powerful as the music surges onwards and upwards.
The closer of the album is called “Lullaby”, but it is not a meditative and tender song. It seems like a song with vocals created to chase away the ghosts or something that hunts you in your sleep. The vocals are eerie and strong upon the distorted music that soon pans out, leaving heavy floor drums, sounds, and the conjuring vocals that melt with the distorted, flowing music. These vocals become stronger and more discordant, vocalizing and rising to new impressive heights with a lot of emotion. This is a delightful, mysterious song that contrasts with other songs, especially the middle ones, and is a perfect closer of the album, somewhat reflecting the album´s title.
