TRANSFORMATION

Azazello's latest album 'Преображение' (or 'Transformation' in English) is the sixth album by the Russian group, which consists of Alexander Kulak, Vladimir Kulak, Vladimir Demakov and Vladislav Chala. The album is naturally sung in Russian, making understanding of the album impossible to English listeners (like myself). For this reason, I can only remark on the experience of listening to this album.

The music on this album is your standard mix of metal combined with some prog influences. I hear strong Uriah Heep influences on Enchantress, and Phoenix seems to play out rather like Dream Theater's Hollow Years. Sadly, besides the Russian lyrics, there's nothing very unique about this album. Everything you hear here on this disc can be heard somewhere else, and would probably sound better. Nevertheless, Azazello have definitely released something with artistic merit.

Perhaps the main fault with this album lies in the mixing. When I think of prog rock, I think of very fine music, like Firth of Fifth and Heart Of The Sunrise. In my opinion, none of the tracks on this album are 'fine'. The mixing, though not awful, just doesn't seem quite right. Often the instruments will sound like they aren't being played together, or one instrument will sound much louder than another. This doesn't ruin the album, but seriously hinders my enjoyment.

When listening to Italian progressive music, I've found that I don't need to understand the lyrics in order to enjoy the music. After listening to this album, I can say that the same does not hold for Russian music. I can't even tell if this is a concept album or not! Whilst being technically competent, the band do not impress me with their musical style. In summary, this is an album that's not very pleasant on the ears, and is really for fans only.