AMENTSIYA

I don't know if having quit to follow Senmuth for a long time has made me appreciate his music more than before, but I have to say that this album stands between his best things. A truly guitar based one. It contains four tracks of about 10 minutes each and the first one is a proper metal track. In "Imitation Of Solitude", this is the translation from Russian, the usual contaminations are present, but there are also surprising things like a saxophone like sound at about minute 7. There are orchestral accents, heavy drums, it's like Valery has borrowed some of Vangelis' sounds, but most of all what makes this track very good is the electric guitar. The drums are programmed as usual, but it's not just a drone. He surely presses some buttons to make them sound like real drums. This is a real improvement.

Awakening Ritual (Anea Maa) starts with jungle sounds, birds accompanied by a minor chord. It reminds a bit to Epson in a Malaysian Pale, the second Edgar Froese's album, and being the ritual of the title a Polinesian thing, it's not too distant geographically. But after the intro there's a guitar explosion and it becomes closer to Opeth than to Tangerine Dream. The rhythm gives the idea of an orgiastic pagan ritual. Another very good metal track which in the central sectionsuddenly enters a psychedelic atmosphere for a while, then polynesian like choirs, likely recorded, enhance the tribal mood. The coda is a return to the jungle.

Half of the album is gone. Now we are somewhere else. The title means "The Face Of The Desert - Old Age Western Sands". Maybe the idea is about the Mexican deserts and Carlos Castaneda's books. Maybe not. It's just a title, but usually Senmuth names his tracks after places, stories or sensations. The lazy rhythm is similar to Camel's Rajaz, but the percussion are more tribal. This is a more usual Senmuth track, but just in the middle, the guitar resurrect the metal mood introducing it with some unexpectedly bluesy notes.

Chro[mental] is strangely melodic. It has the usual ethnic interludes, not as disturbing as sometimes happens with Senmuth because the track flows with continuity. If it wasn't for the sound used, the guitar on this track would have been Floydian.... for the first few minutes, then it's nothing else than good metal.

As I have written initially, I have the impression that this is one of the best albums in the over 200 released by Senmuth. I haven't listened to all of them yet, probably I'll need an additional life.