AT THE END OF DAYS

The mostly slow, sparse and pretty simplistic compositions on this effort really doesn't contain any advanced elements whatsoever. The songs are mainly traditional in structure with verse and chorus parts and an instrumental passage somewhere after the midway point, there are few changes in style or sound within each individual effort and even when the soundscape gets some embellishments from extra instruments it is in a pretty simplistic fashion.

But boy those this album contain some stunning moments. With acoustic guitar and voice alone main man Fred Adra conjures up some truly captivating moods, and small touches from banjo, flute or violin have a stunning effect whenever used. Touches of folk music and symphonic rock adorn these efforts, and although most times very different in style the mood of this production made me think of US artist Phideaux's creation "Doomsday Afternoon" quite often - which is a good thing in my book.

A good album with many truly splendid moments.

They sing in Russian, so not everyone can understand lyrics, but in fact it is not a big problem. Not because their lyrics are of the low level, not at all, but in fact all the songs have similar dreamy and psychedelic poetry, which doesn't change heavily your impression from the music.

Again, both sound and lyrics are very symptomatic for many Russian alternative bands from 90-s, mixing neo-folk, acoustic musicianship and songs with lyrics, bringing you out off real life problems (there were a lot of them in Russia of 90-s, believe me!).

So, even if songs musically sound often too much similar all album long, acoustic sound is nice and musicianship level is good. I don't believe they could be interesting for wide range of listeners, but some interested in quality Russian neo-folk rock could find many pleasant moments when listening this album.

This is basic a Folk Prog album with many different styles within it, not so Prog, but good anyway.

This third record of Israeli/Russian band Zlye Kukly. The album in its majority is slow, sparse and pretty simple, far away from any Prog Rock complications. The songs are simpler in the traditional verse/chorus/verse scheme of things. But that doesn't mean a bad thing anyway, at least not here.

At The End Of Days (2006) is an interesting album, above average medium albums and it's full of good moments. I can bet that if they had a better production it would be an stunning album all along.