The tracklisting on the CD has track numbers followed by blank space.
The label's release note says that drums were done by Yuriy Sinitsky. Guitars rumored been done by Pavel Shishkovskiy from Lutomysl. Vocals done by Unknown person accordingly to I. Naumchuk's interview to Ophiolatry Zine (Russia) in January 2007.
This release from Lucifugum; one of the founding groups of black/pagan slavic-metal will be one for the vaults; as it comes with a bonus vidio clip!! Enhanced track contains bonus video clip for the 8th track in MPEG format.
This may be my very favorite album in the Lucifugum catalog- none of the others (barring perhaps 'On the Sortilage of Christianity') come together as perfectly as this one does. It's interesting, then, that this is the album that's perhaps the most mysterious in Lucifugum's extensive catalog- the imagery is completely different, the session vocalist employed is unknown, the songs are all untitled, and the execution of the music is even a departure from the rest of the band's extensive catalog. It's a very unique piece of music, even in the catalog of a band like Lucifugum who changes with every album.
The theme here, obviously, is mental illness and insanity, and it's projected in an interesting way: there's a dark, cackling sort of madness to this music that sends you on a journey through the mind of someone whose spirit is decaying by the day. It doesn't sound artificially insane; it sounds more as though the person the music is describing has simply given up and given in to the hallucinations he's plagued with. How is this represented musically? Partly in the way you would expect: lots of dissonant passages with strange rhythms reminding one of Deathspell Omega or similar artists, but there's just as much catchy, thrashy material as well. Much of the music here sounds like 'Stigma Egoism', with its militant, late Dub Buk black/thrash feel. The two styles- this black/thrash and the crazed, dissonant, lurching material- constantly duel throughout the songs; a track will start with a strange, hazy passage of dissonant guitars and militant drums, and then, abruptly, a thrash beat and appropriate riffing will start grinding away instead. It makes for an exciting and intense listening experience, but still not one that feels artificial or poorly constructed.
The unknown session vocalist is pretty good- he does a fairly standard Ukrainian shout/screech for the most part, but then, on the later tracks of the album, his style becomes less controlled and more deranged, sounding like a poor man's Nattramn at times, and it actually comes across very well in projecting the sort of insanity the album is all about. Lucifugum doesn't really need any gimmicks to portray what they want with this release- the music does it well enough on its own, with its incredibly weird, wandering song structures and scattered, insistent drum performance- but occasionally some outside elements will be brought in: some samples here, some voiceovers there, maybe some multi-tracked vocals in other place. They never feel like they're overshadowing the music, though; they always work in tandem with it to make a better package. In a lot of albums like this, the band will use extraneous elements to cover up the fact that the music simply isn't that dark, but on this one, it's simply used to bolster the whole package.
This is definitely one of the best albums in the Lucifugum catalog. Though if you only had to pick one, I'd say this shouldn't be it (it's not really a definitive album in the band's discography), but definitely look into this if you want your black metal more on the sick and aberrant side. There's no normal music to be found here and I wouldn't want it any other way.
Official promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
