SIBERIAN CHURCH RECORDINGS

The Australian progressive metal band VAUXDVIHL only released one full album "To Dimension Logic" in 1994 and offered a midway point between the 80s Queensryche metal sound and a grungier alternative metal sound that was dominating the 90s. After the release of the album guitarist Frederic Leduc and bassist / keyboardist Edward Katz immediately left the band to pursue greener pastures leaving founder guitarist and vocalist Fab Gallen with the dilemma of whether to continue the his band that had been plagued by so many difficulties. Despite all trials and tribulations he opted to continue on and release two more EPs. SIBERIAN CHURCH RECORDINGS was the second of these short releases but contains two tracks from the "96 Demo" that debuted the new sound that jettisoned most of the 80s influences in favor of more dark and sinister sounding industrial bleakness.

SIBERIAN CHURCH RECORDINGS is a short but surprisingly startling set of only four tracks that only clock in at 14 minutes and 22 seconds but manages to include a diversity of cold, dank and emotionally draining tracks. "Plots, (To or F) Are Necessary Thing?" starts off with the tintinnabulation of church bell and then eerie ambience ensues for a while and then becomes some grungy type of metal. Despite jettisoning the Queensryche and Fates Warning influences such as the high register vocals and progressive metal type guitar riffs, there are still plenty of progressive time signature changes although it is now on a down-tuned and more dreary soundscape. "ISIS / PEKT" becomes even stranger as it has a frigid industrial ambience with a bass and drums and tinny guitar sustain before power chords erupt behind the electronically processed vocals. It becomes more energetic and sounds a lot like some of Enslaved's more progressive newer albums actually. "Movement" is a slower piano based track that has a dreadful atmospheric haze that is punctuated by heavy drumming and dirty guitar and bass. It's also quite progressive and brings darker progressive metal bands of the 21st century to mind. "Summoning" is a short little dark ambient track that creates some hellish sound effects and tortured monster type utterances.

SIBERIAN CHURCH RECORDINGS is a short but effective slice of darkened progressive metal with industrial bleakness and makes me wish they would have released a full album of this type of material. Even though it's completely different than their previous releases it's quite an interesting listen and better than the previous "Vog" EP. No need to hunt this down on its own. This one can be found along with "Vog" as bonus tracks on the 2014 expanded release of "To Dimension Logic" in a nice double album package with freaky photos and lyrics in the included booklet.