I sincerely consider the Blackbound, which was released in the end of 2016 as one of the best albums released that year. And certainly an outstanding one. Because creating such widescale and bright soundscapes with Black and Groove Metal without vocals, this worth a lot. Also mastermind Vladimir Lehtinen said that he isn’t going to use vocals in Second To Sun. But something happened and motto “If it works good, don’t touch it” started to crumble under influence of Ultar‘s Gleb Sysoev vocals. That’s how The Black was born.
Honestly, I didn’t like this idea. One thing when the music draws pictures in your mind, but when the vocals come, the words that you hear can be totally different from your pictures. So I didn’t’ expected nothing good from this album. Till I heard “The Fool”, one of the strongest tracks in Blackbound, inspired with the darkest Russian movie “Durak” by Yuri Bykov. Not only that frantic vocal couldn’t be suited better to Second To Sun‘s music – words described much more dirty and somber picture that was in my mind.
Music also changed in an album: drums and bass were re-recorded, guitars were amended a little. This added shades to the dark pictures and they became blacker than the blackest black times infinity, if you know what I mean. But this doesn’t mean that the sound is raw, rough or dirty! On the contrary, it seems that every note here, every sound was verified and polished. The only element here that sounds markedly dirty is an incredibly perverted XX Century Fox intro played on flute in “Ladoga Master”, which opens an album. Well, further this flute sounds clean and melodic.
But the main difference between The Black and its predecessor is that Blackbound draws picture, but The Black immerses you in them. Vladimir Lehtinen says: “we try to draw genuinely musical pictures that terrify with their beauty. Beauty is fascinating”. Well, that’s truth: beauty can be dark, black has many shades and the blackness can be everywhere. Firstly in a man himself. Have a nice dive!
The Black was released on May, 16
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