Ethir Anduin "I Magen Av Svart Kaos" CD

Co-released with Dark East Productions and Wolfshade Records. Limited 500 copies

The more one delves deeper into underground metal, especially of the black variety, the more likely it gets to stumble upon one-man bands that enjoy exploring new roads. Among the ones I have had the chance to review, I might name the Canadian project Old Witch with its non-stop mixing of different styles; here we are dealing with a similar seemingly limitless approach by the Russian multi-instrumentalist Alexey Veselov through his creature Ethir Anduin. The project was named after the mouth of the Anduin river from "The Lord Of The Rings", perhaps highlighting its nature both as a "frontier" and as a flowing water basin where different elements meet and blend with each other. Compared to his previous releases, the main differece in terms of contents is probably the choice of Norwegian language for the song titles (he had used English and Russian in the past), that initially confused me a little before finding out the musician was actually from the Leningrad Oblast. In "I Magen Av Svart Kaos" we can notice just how much Veselov enjoys instrumental music (no song features any vocals), and mainly treads between black and doom metal territories even in the same track. You can hear some influences by melodic doom metal à la Swallow The Sun or Daylight Dies (which is great if you like that style), although at times the lack of sung parts might render the record a little incomplete. This is yet another representative of the very lively Russian underground scene, quite clear-minded although open to exploring and contaminations. A good pick by Satanath Records, Dark East Productions, and Wolfshade Records, that succeeded at giving Veselov some well-deserved visibility after years in the independent circuit. We will see what is in store for the future.

Ethir Anduin is a Russian one-man project from Tikhvin and with his fifth studio album, I Magen Av Svart Kaos, he manages to surprise us again. What Ethir Anduin does is quite impressive, blending doom metal and post-rock/metal with an eerie, blackened atmosphere. Besides, he does it without vocals, which makes me even more fond of the whole as its really beautifully written and performed. The music on ‘I Magen Av Svart Kaos’ is indeed quite meticulously written and recorded, something that seems a bit odd in the black metal genre but gives the post-rock/metal world something extra. Therefore, I would rather categorize this in that post-scene. ‘Katt Vinter’ for example, is a stunning track, heavy, atmospheric and precise, most of the tracks are. So I do recommend this album, but possibly not to stubborn black metal fans (who need screaming vocals to make it through the day).

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...