Band: HALTER
Country: Russia
Title: The Principles of Human Being
Label: MFL Records
Year: 2020
Style: Doom Death Metal

Review:
Third full-length album by Russian quintet Halter, The Principles of Human Being is made of 7 new tracks plus 2 that are bonus here, so 9 tracks clocking an hour of playing time. The band should update their Bandcamp where to this day (end of 2021) they are still looking for a label to release this album even if it was already released a year ago... Anyway, what I've noticed the band is doing differently compared to the previous albums is they chose a more traditional Doom influenced path this time instead of the Funeral Doom influences they used to have. Although the vocals are as low-tuned growling as before, the instrumental part has a lot of traditional Doom inserts, and even some Heavy Doom at times making this material a bit more accessible (not commercial though, it still has plenty of Death Metal chunks in it), and honestly the compositions are better, the instrumental execution as well, the complexity is higher (not to a progressive extent though) and the overall level of the band improved since their 2015 album For the Abandoned. We're still dealing with that grim, slow to mid-tempo paced, heavy and straight-forward Doom Death, but it's better that before, the progress is audible, I'd say Halter did their best work to date here and hopefully they will keep evolving. 
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7.5/10

Contact:
halter2009.bandcamp.com
mfl-records.com