ALBUM REVIEW: Karst Relict – Malist
Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Eastern Europe has been a hotbed of heavy music. Once rock and metal moved out with the realms of criminality and into the cultural underground, post-Communist states like Poland and the Czech Republic became breeding grounds of brutality – Poland, in particular, has a long history of producing some of the top tier extreme metal, especially in recent years. It’s taken a bit longer for the Russian scene to get a foothold of international recognition, but times are changing. The Russian black metal scene in particular is offering up wonders – and leading the vanguard in the underground is MALIST, a one-man atmospheric black metal outfit from Moscow. Karst Relict comes as MALIST‘s third record in as many years, and further proof of the strength of Russian black metal.
A sombre melody and bluesy leads herald the beginning of Karst Relict before Remaining Light explodes into life. Tremolo riffs and tense drum patterns filled with a sense of urgency drive forward as Remaining Light transitions into its main body – melodic black metal rules here, with an atmospheric touch and a flair for the dramatic. Vocally, Nick Kholodov covers a lot of ground – his vitriolic rasps sometimes making way for a more death metal leaning bellow and, on occasion, an almost spoken-word growl. A few soft piano keys bring the thunderous Remaining Light to an end.
Satellite shows little of the introductory fanfare of Remaining Light, driving straight into the business end of melodic black metal riffage. Kholodov continues to hint at his vocal range, cleans harmonising with rasps at points while the drum work of session sticksman Daniel Oplachkin is vice-tight, keeping the tempo urgent and the tension on edge. Timeless Torch keeps the quality high, edging further into atmospheric black metal territories at points, though it carries some of the most memorable riffing across Karst Relict, while the mid-album gut-punch of A Way Through Limbo and Lifeless Ease of Nonbeing sees MALIST double down on the misery and melancholy of melodic black metal, and then some.
Moving into the final straight of Karst Relict, Kholodov brings the thunder with leas single Chthonic Trinity. Absolutely monolithic in its execution, this is MALIST at the most memorable and masterful, a penchant for writing big hooks blending seamlessly with the most eviscerating of melodic black metal stylings. A true modern masterpiece of the genre. Penultimate track and closer Descent Into Ruin and Between the Worlds round off MALIST‘s third record in solid form – Descent Into Ruin serves as an interlude, soft and drowned in melody, nicely teeing up Karst Relict‘s grand finale. Melodic and atmospheric black metal can both be emotional, sombre styles, and the sense of misery they invoke has been flirted with plenty throughout Karst Relict – but Between the Worlds drives the darkness home, hard. A very real feeling of ending runs through the closing number, the melodies tugging on the heartstrings while the riffs and drums keep an almost doom-like feel throughout before the subtle orchestration draws the record to a close. A beautiful end to a solid album from MALIST.
Perhaps it’s the production that leans a tad into over-polished territory, but there’s something missing from Karst Relict – a bite, a rough-around-the-edges charm that made To Mantle The Rising Sun such a stone-cold winner. Karst Relict sounds just a bit too clean, in comparison. Production aside, however, there’s no arguing that the music itself stands as a spellbinding journey of misery and brutality. Atmospheric and melancholic in equal measure, MALIST continue to be the best thing to come from the Russian underground.
Rating: 7/10
Karst Relict is out now via Northern Silence Productions.
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