Band: ISTINA
Country: Russia
Title: Revelation Of Unknown
Label: Independent
Year: 2018
Style: Depressive Black Metal

Review:
Second album from this Siberian duo, Revelation Of Unknown is made of 12 tracks and clocks a bit over 70 minutes of playing time. All is in Russian here, so if you don't know the language the 16 oages booklet of this digipak CD won't help you much understanding what the tracks are all about, and on top of that it's absolutely impossible to understand even a word of what the singer yells, so from this point of view Istina's second album is narrowed down to a tiny, tiny audience from the start. Regarding the compositions I can't say I'm impressed by anything here, we're dealing with a slow to mid-tempo Depressive Black Metal with occasional fast passages, but there is not much complexity, nor much diversity between tracks so 70 minutes of playing time seems a bit too much. The guitar riffs are very fuzzy, sounding like noise rather than real riffs actually, the drums are programmed and although not annoyingly synthetic, they are too repetitive all the time like someone left them playing and went out for a drink. The keyboard sounds in the background are a good addition and although you can barely distinguish them, they give the whole foggy, dense, oppressive direction to the overall atmosphere. The vocals, although totally uncomprehensive, are the best part of Istina's music: eerie, ghoulish, frightened and frightening at the same time, totally cold and sharp as the winters in Siberia are. With a bit more variation Istina might build themselves a good name in this sub-genre, but good vocals and atmosphere aren't enough in this day and age.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 6/10

Contact:
facebook.com/IstinaBM