The most current publication of french label Altsphere Production is Zastor Tišine by Zagreb based five-piece band (DRAMA). With just a cello and a rising touch of folklore this album begins. It seems that Croatia has a thing for classic instruments. The one other Band I know deriving from this East European Country – Ashes You Leave is much in love with the flute and violin.
But unlike their fellow-men and women (DRAMA) tend to go into much deeper doomy depths, almost disharmonic in some ways and with vocals from wild and rough as the soil.
Listening to this foreign language sends me back to a time in kindergarten and the beginning of elementary school. Back in those days the English language was not familiar to me, still listening to music all the time and even trying to sing along. Music is indeed the universal language and emotions are transported so much more by melodies and harmonies while lyrics become less elementary. So don’t worry if you don’t understand a single word of (DRAMA) and just think of all the bands using the English language but through their kind of vocals you won’t understand anything either.
The atmospheric mixture of death and doom elements are held together by an intensity other bands fail to accomplish. To my ear the disharmony that finds its way on Zastor Tišine every now and then appears almost displaced, like by mistake. But for fans of Opeth, My Dying Bride and the likes of those it must be a great pleasure to hear. Vocals and riffing are fulfilled with a weight that could let you (or your ears) burst, yet if you’re in the right mood for this heaviness it could just as well be the perfect album. Yet tracks six offers a ballades moment with beautiful male and female vocals.
The final half is rollercoaster ride with calm instrumental moments and evil doom epics.
Punkte: 5.5 / 10