SIVYJ YAR – Burial Shrouds

Music Review : Sivyj Yar – Burial Shrouds (2015, Avantgarde Music)

Highly prolific band or one man band, Sivyj Yar (an ancient deity of Slavs) and its sole member Vladimir from Russia, has released five albums since 2009. With lyrics recalling the early times of Varg Vikernes in the infamous Norwegian black metal scene, Sivyj Yar is navigating between thrash metal, black metal, avant-garde, and even post-rock. There’s also a huge sensibility of progressive rock of the 1970’s and a bit of distant shoegazing that the music evokes.

As the promo states, the lyrics are about Russian peasantry and it is based on Slavonic mythology and poetry. With the album art picturing those peasants in cold winter with grim and hungry faces the music recalls for painful times and a not so far time in rural Russia. Vladimir sounds like as he wants to express the difficult past of his Slavonic heritage.

In the vein of depressive black metal Sivyj Yar is a very solid entry of melancholy guitar and almost nostalgic undertones of a Rush album of the Fly by Night era. For numerous reasons the textures and sounds of Burial Shrouds reminded me of early Rush. However, Sivyj Yar is more using simplistic song structures and less drum fills.

The genre is far from my personal preference of black metal, in fact, depressive black metal is my least favorite subgenre of the genre. But I quite appreciated it and even enjoyed ‘’Like A Sparkle We Will Vanish Into the Darkness’’.

6.0