Short Reviews [Transnadeznost' - 2018 - "Monomyth"]

Transnadeznost' came together in St. Petersburg in 2012, with Alexander Yershov on guitar and Vladimir Gurov on drums. Soon Max Zhuravlyov has joined the band on bass and synths, and the first demo ‘Shamantra/First Arab’ Astronaut was recorded. Since then they have released some more EP’s, been through the normal line-up changes, and ‘Monomyth’ is their debut full-length album as they move away from the jam scene and more into proper rehearsed songs. Mostly instrumental, with just one song with a guest singer, and two more with a guest trumpeter who adds lightness to the overall sound, this is a band who are very much into stoner/heavy psyche. Only Alexander Yershov remains from the early days, and he is now joined by Alesya Izlesa (guitar, glockenspiel), Nioklay Yladimirovich (bass) and David Aaronson(drums). The band move through slow and quicker tempos, but the slower ones only work in that the listener (and probably the band) are waiting for something to happen and when they wake up and start moving more quickly that is when they come to life. When they are all in sync, such as on opener “Pacha Mama” then they really are a delight, as they fire hard, but there are also times when they move almost into sludge and space rock territory and the slower tempos don’t work for them. The music is incredibly heavy, but the production is clear throughout with good separation, so it allows them to crank it up without everything becoming a wall of mud. They are single minded in their approach, which is both good and bad, so hardened fans of this style of music will probably find a lot in here to enjoy while others may feel it is just too one-dimensional. Personally I would have liked to have heard more input from Aleksey Gorshkov as the addition of his trumpet on a few numbers really changed things up as it added an additional facet.