Rating: 8.5

Country: Russia

Genre: Black Metal

Record Label: Dark Moon

Release Date: 2008

Track list:
1. The Prophetic  
2. Perun's Arrows   
3. Into the Forest Far Beyond the Rainbow  
4. My Lands   

Total playing time   18:30

Band Website: Smaga

Smaga - My Lands

Ozmir - Guitar
Velemudr - Guitar, bass, vocals, drum programming

Here's another one for my "pleasant surprise" files. As a Russian black metal album, the seemingly ubiquitous "folk" element of East European metal is not absent in My Lands, but it's limited to the odd acoustic bridge and a couple of chanted verses -- what's really notable is that in a niche wherein churning out bloated, romanticist garbage is so easy, Smaga instead intensely scrutinize their craft and bathe in the clever simplicity of an accordingly streamlined final product.

The riffs are generally quite heterophonic, favoring verbosity and vertiginous control of melodic development to texture or repetition. In that regard, so-called epic black metal bands such as Hate Forest, Taake and Graveland are fairly good reference points, although Smaga are much more concise, with the core of their songwriting occupied by earworm-inducing rock compositional devices. To call My Lands catchy would be a gross understatement; it's performed with the same studious attention to compositional tone and adroit hooks that makes that one pop song you're embarrassed to like so perfect.

It's all a little overpolished (especially in the vocal sound, which is so hideously distorted it would be more at home in some cybergrind album), but that slickness allows every nuance of the music full prominence; the bass, for instance, is always audible, and more importantly, it's an independent musical voice that does not merely chase the coattails of trebly tremolo picking. I typically loathe programmed drums, but they're appropriate for this sort of mid-paced pitter-patter, neither too showy nor benign. And although I dissed the vocals a second ago, they're good for what they are, especially when Velemudr takes a break from his snotty snarl and sings the lines -- none of that off-key yohoho viking bullshit either, but genuinely tasteful clean vocals.

Although it's only comprised of a few songs, this EP epitomizes the phrase "all killer and no filler". I could recommend this to fans of Drudkh, Temnozor, Kroda Galar and similar acts, but that's far too proximal of a summation for music this good. My Lands is pagan black metal for those who yearn for more than bread and circus in their music.

August 15th, 2008