Showing posts with label Negative Voice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Negative Voice. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Negative Voice/Cold Redrafted/Hypnotic Dirge Records/2016 Full Length Review


  Negative  Voice  are  a  band  from  Russia  that  has  been  featured  before  in  this  zine  and  plays  a  melodic  mixture  of  black  and  death  metal  with  a  touch  of  doom  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2016  album  "Cold  Redrafted"  which  will  be  released  in  April  by  Hypnotic  Dirge  Records.

  Clean  yet  distorted  playing  starts  off  the  album  along  with  some  drum  beats  and  melodic  guitar  leads  making  their presence  known  a  few  seconds  later  which  also  leads  up  to  a  heavier  musical  direction  and  you  can  also  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that  are  present  on  this  recording  and  whispers  can  also  be  heard  briefly.

  Clean  singing  can  be  heard  in  some  parts  of  the  songs  while the  aggressive  vocals  are  mostly  black  metal  screams  and  there  is  also  a  brief  use  of  spoken  word  parts and  the  music  also  alternates  quite  a bit  between  soft  and  heavy  parts  and  when  the  music  speeds  up  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  along  with  tremolo  picking  can  be  heard  while  the  songs  are  mostly  slow  or  mid  paced  and  the  music  can  also  get  very  progressive  at  times.

  Negative  Voice  retain  some  of  the  melodic  black/death  elements  of  the  last  album  while  also focusing  more  on  the  progressive,  goth  and  doom  metal  side  this  time  around,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  oblivion  and  desolation  themes.

  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  recording  from Negative Voice  and  if  you  are  into t he  melodic  styles  of  black,  doom  and death  metal,  you  should  check  out this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "City  of  Decaying  Gaze"  "Impasse"  and  "Draft Life".  8  out  of 10.

https://hypnoticdirgerecords.bandcamp.com/album/cold-redrafted      

  

 

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Negative Voice Interview


Can you give us an update on what is going on with the band these days?
The band is currently actively engaged in the creation of the material for the second album, which we plan to record in the studio at the end of this year. The new album is likely to be very different from the debut album in stylistics and sound. The whole band now are involved in writing the new material; everyone brings ideas and influences the final result. After recording a new album we plan to continue an active concert schedule.

Recently you have released a new album, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical direction of the new recording and also how does it differ from your past recordings?
Infinite Dissonance is our debut album, and it is the aim and the logical culmination of a long enough, more than a decade years evolution of Negative Voice`s ideas. During this period band recorded several inconspicuous demo-tapes, went on long pauses, changed the line-up, the band conception and style of music played. So Infinite Dissonance as our first creation is some kind of a milestone. Stylistically, the album has included elements of several styles of metal.

The band was broken up for a few years, what was the cause of the split and also the decision to reform?
In fact the band has never ceased to exist. In 2004 there was a pause associated with location of band`s members (at that time - Andrew and Yaroslav) in different cities, and with their participation in other musical projects. In 2010 it was decided to continue the activities of the band and to record a new demo tape with a few songs.

Can you tell us a little bit about the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
All themes of the lyrics on the Infinite Dissonance could be characterized by the phrase "intentional self-destruction of the individual in modern human society." All lyrics are filled with depression mood, sadness, thoughts of return to the past, mental anguish, mental degradation and madness. The last song leaves hope for the life salvation outside of society by refraining from the madding crowd.

The band started out as «Valhalla» what was the decision behind the name change and also the meaning and inspiration behind the name «Negative Voice».
Valhalla name was coined in late 1999 for the just formed new band. At that time we had influence of pagan doctrines on our ideology - both in lyrics and music. A little later, with the change of the course the name was changed to more neutral. Meaning of the words Negative Voice for us is "vote against" - the ability to speak out against the prevailing attitudes, and the canons of morality, as well as the expression of the negative voice in all of us, our dark half or "second self."

What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
For today it is a concert in the city of Kazan, which has been played as a part of our mini tour in late 2013. We were warmly welcomed and well supported technically.

Do you have any touring or show plans for the new release?
We are currently planning a tour for upcoming summer, hoping to capture some cities in Baltic countries through Belarus, probably getting to Poland. World web community firstly became acquainted with the album in the summer of 2013, and the official release at the Inverse Records came in the spring `14th. Therefore, several concerts as the presentation of the debut album have already been given in 2013.

On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black and death metal?
Fans usually tell that music from our release is some continue from an old Katatonia era, it’s a pleasure for us to know that people from different parts of the world enjoy our music, hope we’ll be able to play in every such country.

Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
We do not think what style we want to play and who we’d look like. Today, it is important for us that our music is more diverse and less iconic, and would not cause association with well-known albums of well-known groups. Each of us brings to the music part of his perception of the future Negative Voice’s music, his personal view  the structure of the songs and overall band’s concept. And partly we ourselves wonder how the second album will be. There will be more influence of progressive and some «post»-like subgenres. The vocals will be more varied, with rich arrangements.

Are the band members involved with any other musical projects these days?
Konstantin (drummer) takes himself in side-projects from time to time, for example in death metal bands. Today, he continues to help his former colleagues from Inis (Moscow, Black metal). Andrew has its own, but currently suspended due to lack of time studio project.

What are some bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening nowadays?
Our musical taste ranges from DSBM to fusion. The key thing for us is that we listen to many different kinds of music. Some of us are ‘metalheads’ preferring math and progressive metal, some enjoy and old classic rock bands such as Black Sabbath, the Who, King Crimson. We accept each other’s preferences with respect, trying to acquaint with the bands one of us was not aware of.

What are some of your non musical interests?
Usually we are setting churches on a fire, wearing corpsepaint along with a rusty nails sticking out our jackets (just kidding). Each of us has a permanent place of work, so the music for us - the main interest in our spare time. We all like travelling; some of us spend time with family. In general, we are the peaceful and kind people trying to live an interest life.

Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts
We wish all the best and good luck to the ADifferentShadeOfBlackMetalZine blog, hope you guys get a large amount of a bands respecting you as we do.

Bandcamp
Facebook
Myspace
Spotify
VKontakte
YouTube

Friday, February 28, 2014

Negative Voice/Infinite Dissonance/Inverse Records/2014 CD Review



  Negative  Voice  are  a  band  from  Russia  that  plays  a  very  melodic  and  mid  tempo  form  of  black/death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2014  album  "Infinite  Dissonance"  which  was  released  by  Inverse  Records.

  The  album  starts  out  with  a  very  dark  sound  bordering  on  classical  and  after  a  minute  the  music  goes  into  a  more  heavy  and  melodic  direction  along  with  grim  black  metal  vocals  as  well  as  bringing  in  guitar  leads  and  you  can  also  hear  elements  of  doom  metal  in  the  music.

  The  band  also  bring  this  approach  to  other  songs  as  well  and  the  vocals  also  get  deeper  in  certain  sections  of  the  recording  as  well  as  adding  in  a  great  amount  of  death  metal  elements  to  the  music  and  after  awhile  clean  vocals  and  spoken  word  parts are  brought  in  on  certain  tracks  and  the  album  ends  with  a  small  amount  of  acoustic  gutiars.

  With  this  album  negative  Voice  bring  a  very  different  sound  to  melodic  black/death  metal,  keeping  everything  mid  tempo  along  with  traces  of  doom  metal  and  it  has  a  more  original  feeling  than  most  bands  of  this  genre.

  Song  lyrics  cover  dark,  depressive  and  philosophical  themes,  while  the  production h as  a  very  strong,  powerful,  heavy,  dark  along  with  the  bass  guitars  being  mixed  down  low  in  the  mix  as  well  as  some  of  the  songs  being  very  long  and  epic  in  length.

  In  my  opinion  Negative  Voice  are  a  very  great  sounding  melodic,  mid  tempo  black/death  metal b and  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Grey  Pools  Heaven"  "Into  Oblivion"  and  "Rejection".  8  out  of  10.

Bandcamp
Facebook
Myspace
Spotify
VKontakte
YouTube