Slabs of industrial white noise take on a forceful, scooped riff in the crushing “Darkness Calling.” Brutal beats skewed with a politicized verse are barked at us in “Defy.” Old school heavy metal sludge gets a gothic, Type O Negative-style twist in “Purple Door.” A bleak bassline and guttural vocals drag us asunder, beneath layers of a startlingly harmonious hellscape in “My Devil.” This is Vovkulaka’s sneak peek into their upcoming full length cd to be released in early 2020, and whether you’ve been following this Ukrainian metal outfit’s ascent into the spotlight since their inception or are just now discovering their crushing sound through this sampler disc of acclaimed fan favorites, its four virtuosic tracks are definitely worth your time if you love heavy music at its most experimental.
SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/VovkulakaMusic
There’s a great physicality to everything on this record, and I don’t think you have to be an expert music critic to recognize every song’s organic tone. “Darkness Calling” absolutely flirts with alternative rock hues and a certain industrial edge, but there’s never any debate as to whether or not its core melodicism centers on traditional, bottom-end textures that quake the ground in the same way that classic acts like Black Sabbath did decades ago. Both “My Devil” and “Purple Door” are suffocating and mixed with virtually no midrange, as to create as passionate a sound as possible, and although “Defy” has a lot more punk in its blood than any of the other tracks here do, it rounds out the record with a sadistic powerhouse of a percussive beat that isn’t easy to get out of your head once you’ve heard it for the first time.
If you dig big grooves and solid riffs as much as I do, Vovkulaka’s teaser EP is a can’t-miss release from a proven heavyweight in the Ukraine scene. There aren’t many European acts that I’ve reviewed this season with as much buzz around them as this group has right now, and if they can enter the New Year with as much momentum as they’ve had throughout the whole of 2019, I’ve got a feeling that they’re going to gain scores of fans on the American side of the Atlantic a lot sooner than later.
Troy Johnston