Idea. Form. Essence...

Ukrainian black metal is nowadays viewed as one of the powerhouse scenes of the black metal underworld, offering up such staple heathen-fodder as Nokturnal Mortum, Lucifugum, Hate Forest and Drudkh. The relentless, airy riffage and ambient, melody-driven sound has become synonymous with this productive and close-knit scene: a scene where one band is apparently never enough for any of the active participants.

Astrofaes was in fact one of the very first Ukranian bands out of the starting blocks back in 1996, along with Nokturnal Mortum. Unlike that band, Astrofaes ignored the synthesiser-led sound, at a time when everyone from Behemoth to Mayhem was attempting to encorporate a metric ton of production electrickery into their new records. Astrofaes' brand of steady, mid-paced guitar-driven metal would become the blueprint for later bands like Hate Forest and Drudkh (with whom they share their entire current line-up).

That they should have never received the recognition or fanatical support of these latter bands has always seemed puzzling and a little unjust, as their early classics ("Heritage" and "Eyes of the Beast") languished in partial obscurity. Unfortunately it is unlikely that this new album will change any of that. Because with "Idea. Form. Essence." Astrofaes have recorded maybe the safest sounding black metal album ever.

There are many filler sections; even entire tracks which do nothing but meander on from one riff to another without any sense of direction or build up to a conclusive ending. The prevalence of clean guitar tones is used as shorthand to acknowledge the traditions of heathen/folk metal aesthetic, but in reality, the melodies would sound ten times better with some heavy distortion.

This is the main problem with the album, and Astrofaes as a whole. They have attempted to touch every base with a middle-of-the-road sound that marries folk metal songwriting with the extreme black-death-thrash roots of the genre. "Idea. Form. Essence." is -ironically - an untidy muddle of too many ideas and forms. The new material comes across as a collection of Drudkh b-sides, that were dropped from the last album because they lacked a strong melodic pull.

There are some memorable sections though, such as the ringing guitar on the title track, and the use of counter-melody on the bass guitar which adds a proggy tone to a selection of the tracks. The musicianship is also flawless once again, making Astrofaes one of the only Ukranian acts to actually sound like an organic band with real human musicians, instead of just an automated loop-making machine filled with a heap of extreme metal sample phrases. But on the whole the album is an unsatisfying experience.


(Originally written for BLAST! zine #1)

At first glance Idea. Form. Essence. might seem too rigid, too sparse in their style. The members of Astrofaes have proven in this and other projects that they are both capable of great feats and possess the good taste not to toot their own horn all the time. I have to admit that I was initially underwhelmed not by their ferocity (which Astrofaes has always carried by the bucketload), but by the basic arrangement and simplicity of these tracks. But like the best albums, this one bore new perspecitives with further listens, and now it gets heavy rotation.

While other acts play up the synth strings, jaw harps, flutes/recorders/ etc to the point where the music sounds more like "The Legend of Zelda," Astrofaes keep it simple with just a smattering of extra elements beyond the usual gutar/bass/drums setup. The focus here is on quality, not the forced intrusion of superfluous gimmicks. The guitars stay in power-chord riff frenzy, with occasional droning parts, only occasionaly evoking the folksy melodicism of Drudkh or other related projects. Those expecting the more introspective moments of that band to materialize in Astrofaes will probably be disappointed, as Astrofaes seems to be the outlet for most of the pure aggression with this group of busy musicians.

High points for me have been "Among Hungry Curs" with it's crushing opening riff, the instrumental "Conspiracy of Silence," and "In the Fog" which features some excellent use of dynamics, but the album is probably best taken as a whole. Despite the rigid orthodoxy initially prevalent, each track is loaded with unique characteristics, an effect of their remakable good taste.

I should make special mention of the drums. Amorth has reached a new plateau here, and also enjoys a superior production to bring out all the details. The drums really carry the rest of the music. What's amazing is his even-handed, paced approach, even at break-neck speeds. This is an amazing performance for metal drums of any genre.

What you get with Idea. Form. Essence. is uncompromising, pummelling, largely pagan-informed black metal, played with expertise and with a minimum of frills. "Martial" is the best term I could use to describe such an efficient and aggressive album as this.