TAIGA - RUSSIA

TAIGA – COSMOS – SATANATH  
Taiga’s 2017 album Cosmos should be graded higher than a mere 60. To be clear sixty is above average and something of which to be proud. However, the band’s music has a penchant for being harsh and melodic at the same time. It is often depressive and melodious simultaneously. It is ambiance overlain on chain gang heaviness. These elements occur in parallel one atop the other. That is impressive. The vocalization is scarce and veers from spoken word to infernal shrieks when they do appear. The vocals sound like the screech emanating from Trump’s larynx when he comes for his daughter’s sex tape he watches every night only to find out that the disc is misplaced and lost. It sounds like a predator finding his prey has crawled somewhere unassailable. It sounds like a hen finding the carcass of her chickens in the nest when she flies back home. It is fascinating.
What lets this band down is the god-awful drum machine sound. Firstly, bands stop being lazy and find humanity in your music. Secondly, if you must include a computer in your art in place of a feeling human then make it sound just a tad less artificial than this. The drum machine is terrible and the downfall of this and many two-man bands. Elsewhere, the band is termed black metal, but given how the lyrics are in Russian it is difficult to ascertain whether the band sings the praises of Satan. – Ali “The Metallian”