Lunar Funeral – Road to Siberia
Band: Lunar Funeral
Title: Road to Siberia
Label: Helter Skelter / Regain Records
Release date: 24 July 2021
Country: Russia
Format reviewed: High-quality Digital Recording
Now, I would like to believe that when any member of the BAZ family writes a review on an album, they try to be fair, neutral and appreciative of each and every skill that bands bring to the table, even if whatever they are hearing is not their cup of tea, or they might not personally like it. This week´s pick was particularly hard for me to handle, as I can imagine that many many people out there appreciate the album I picked. Lunar Funeral hails from Russia, and “Road to Siberia” is planned for a release later this month. While not my thing, I did go into it with an open mind and reminded myself that fair and neutral are the keys.
“Introduce” is first in line, bringing forth alarming guitar intro before the drums come in with some slow sludge kind of sounding atmosphere. Quite unsettling as it has fear baked into it. “The Thrill” continues this feel, and unfortunately the vocals are all over the place when it comes to singing in key. Perhaps fitting for this, but quite unpleasant to hear. The irony creates itself as well when the title of the track is “The Thrill”, however then you are met with 11 minutes of something slow and generic.
“25th Hour” is in the same manner as the previous track; slower sludgy rock with drums in your face and guitars almost sounding like being played in the next-door neighbor’s bathroom with the vocalist on the roof with a megaphone. I do not really remember having heard anything similar from any other band, I suppose it does make this group somewhat one of its kind. Silence sure does not live up to its name and starts out quite interesting with a good riff as well as a nice melody climb. For 8 minutes it might be too long, but that can be said about the majority of the tracks. “Don´t send Me to Rehab” closes this ordeal, and I know for sure now that this is not my cup of tea.
I do get that this kind of music has its following, and while I have not heard any before that do this in particular, it is not my place to drag this work down solely because I feel like that if this was a person and I had to shake hands with them; it would turn out to be a person with a limb handshake. There surely are riffs here and there that are quite nice, with some interesting build up and melody, and what they do they do well, and the production is alright. 6/10 Julia Katrin
Label
Helter Skelter Productions
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Website (coming soon)
Regain Records
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6/10 We may survive!
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