SOOM - Ніч на Полонині by SOOM

released October 19, 2015

RBF 008

Contact the band:

vk.com/soomdoom
www.facebook.com/soomdoom
www.youtube.com/channel/UCpNXXOqRpIYIUwTToqlY7lw

-------------------------------------------------------------------

"Sometimes the riff is just so good.....and sometimes it is scary good! Enter Ukrainian doomers SOOM, who we were first introduced to in their split with Pressor and Diazepam and now have struck with a vengeance, giving us another window into one of the most brutal doom 'n' sludge scenes on the planet right now. 'Ніч на полонині' (2015 - No Name Records), which translates as 'Night On The Meadow,' deserves a hearing by every lover of vicious, filthy, low-tuned, shake-the-fucking-ground metal, with music based on Ukrainian mysticism, folk-music, and hypnotic rhythms. One of my favorite releases of June."

-BillyGoat-
Doomed & Stoned

==================================================

"Данный релиз отлично слушается на природе, а еще лучше, стоя у сцены, теряя связь с телом, спинным и главным мозгом."

neformat.com.ua

==================================================

"Ignorance always gets under my skin, especially when I’m the one generating it’s dull force. What little I know about the Ukraine has always been through the lens of the Soviet Union. It’s like learning about the United States through the lens of the United Kingdom. I know less about the country’s folklore and myth and those elements are what seems to power the Soom engine. I need immersion learning here – a quick search yields no shortage of results… castles, tombs, ravines, fields, caverns – and perhaps the most disturbing, Hitler’s Werwolf headquarters which is rumored to have been built on the advice of the Institute of Occult Sciences in Berlin.

Whatever the genesis, Soom puts a premium on dark, heavy and weird. Night on Meadow combines the in-studio electronic wizardry of Italy’s Ufomammut with the brilliant experimentation and seemingly (or not-so-seemingly) drug-fueled free-form jams of Electric Wizard’s Supercoven/Burnout, just when that band was just transitioning from a Sabbath clone into High Weirdness. Add to this some native folk elements and lo-fi appreciation, and you’ve got Night on Meadow. Adventurous listening.

Traditional song structure is nowhere to be found on the album, these guys are the Coltrane of heavy weirdness. Witness the roaring electronic ambiance that characterizes “The Invisible Axe”. It goes from mildly soothing to sounding like a swarm of Ukrainian killer bees. The little girl’s voice and random woodwind instrumentation underneath breaks the creep meter into millions of disturbing shards. ‘The Stone’ starts out with an easy, clean sounding guitar quickly overcome by a nauseatingly undulating heavy sound that is hard to imagine coming from a guitar. When I say ‘nauseating’ I truly mean that – I can only get through this particular song a minute at a time because it makes me feel ill. The 11 minute and aptly titled “Dirge” distills the essence of Soom – dark, heavy, eerily lo-fi and unearthly soundscapes, chanting vocals and that ‘recorded in a cavern’ drum sound.

In honesty, although I’ll offer accolades all night long on the band’s creative prowess and willingness to be inspired by the folklore and mysticism of their native land, I can’t say that Night on Meadow would get many repeated listenings. It’s too out there, too harsh and too dark for my tastes. A couple of times through yields praise, just not too many hits on the repeat button. I've been beaten into submission."

-Chris Barnes-
www.hellridemusicforums.com/forum/showthread.php?p=427021#post427021