Thursday, 22 August 2019

Ethereal Riffian - Legends (Album Review)


Release date: September 06th 2019. Label: Robustfellow Prod. Format: Cassette/CD/DD/Vinyl

Legends – Tracklisting

1.Sage's Alchemy
2.Born Again
3.Dreamgazer
4.Legends
5.Kosmic
6.Unconquerable
7.Moonflower
8.Pain To Wisdom
9.Yeti's Hide
10.Ethereal Path

Members

Val Korniev – guitar/vocal/lyrics
Olexander Korniev – bass
Max Yuhimenko – lead guitar
Nikita Shipovskoi – drums

Review

Legends is the new album from Ethereal Riffian and it’s perhaps their most confident and most accessible offering to date. However the album does has it’s fair share of controversial moments especially with the socially aware and politically fused lyrics. The music is the main focal point for Legends and the album is a mixture of Grunge, Doom, Sludge, Psych, Stoner Metal and Progressive Metal sounds holding everything together.

Opening song – Sage’s Alchemy – is a swirling Post-Doom offering with the Progressive and Psychedelic sounds leading the way. The song is quite flashy in places but it shows that the band have a darker and more daring sound coming your way.

Second song – Born Again starts with a confident and heavy rhythm with the vocals coming right at you. The music has a slight Alternative Rock/Metal approach that I didn’t expect. The band move quickly to add Spacier elements to their music which they’ve done on previous releases.

Third song – Dreamgazer – adds a Heavy Metal feel to the overall flow of the album but settles down into a more cautious Psych Doom/Stoner based groove. Ethereal Riffian remind me of Soundgarden and Alice In Chains on this song and it’s quite an exciting sound with the band being quite emotional on this song.

Up next is the title track – Legends – and its’ one of the albums most aggressive songs on the album with the music and lyrics portraying a bleak picture when matched against the hard rocking sounds that show you can do something different with the standard rules of Doom/Stoner Metal.

Ethereal Riffian move into overdrive with the second half of the album. As the band become more daring with everything on this album. The music become heavier and more progressive especially on songs such as KOSMIC, MOONFLOWER and ETHEREAL PATH. The band show a real creative flair on this album and it will instantly draw you in until the very end.

The album does run out of steam near the end but it’s the overall journey that Ethereal Riffian take you upon that’s the real highlight. The album is helped along by explosive production values that will keep the listener on their toes and guessing which direction the album will take you next.

Overall, Legend is a complex and challenging album but one that is packed with expertly played riffs and fantastic vocals to match. This may not be the most straight forward album to listen to but that hasn’t stopped Ethereal Riffian from releasing their best album to date.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Against PR and RobustFellow Prod for the promo. 

Legends is available to pre-order now on Cassette/CD/DD/Vinyl via Robustfellow Prod and will be released on September 06th 2019 via a range of different packages.

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