As
it happens often in the 90es in the European part of Russia the band BELOW THE SUN from the central Asia city Krasnoyarsk
is a conceptual copy of a definite model which music is decorated with
quotes of the similar bands in the gender. The band is founded at the
annual wood musical festival in their home city in 2012. The Russians
implement in the music life of the region world tendencies from the drone/funeral doom scene.
The
choice of vision of the Russian is clearly borrowed by SUNN O))). To create drone metal in
Russia, however, besides that it
could be hardly liked by the masses it could also be politically dangerous.
That is why over drone rhythms and
background sound with continuing functions are set rather melodic
components. The acoustic and other silent “post” passages are similar
mostly to the works of ÖRÖM, but there are
also other influences. The rather elementary compositions are disguised
with multitude of effects. The melodies are implemented from the
Scandinavian funeral doom bands that have affinity to them like SHAPE OF DESPAIR and THE FUNERAL ORCHESTRA. This is in unison with the Russian
mentality, and in „Cries Of Dying Stars“ there are also some
Russian folk traditions. We can listen to the harmonies inspired by the
popular in the country KYPCK. The vocal range
is from aggressive to whispering.
„Envoy“ is an album that
offers pleasant moments for the admirers of funeral doom metal. The good
shots in it compared to the colossal quantity of quotations make me careful
in writing praises for BELOW THE SUN, because I cannot
find their real identity. They are well
melted collage but from known elements. Although the stable back vocal
support by the guitar player and the drummer the future presentation of the
debut of the band would be without their vocalist that had just left the
band. This is a surmountable obstacle but the seeking of the identity of
the band continues.
