Sivyj Yar - Grief (2020)^{Release ID: 17108}

These Russians' brand of atmospheric black metal has a distinctly Eastern European flavour that sets it apart, in that it doesn't overtly use acoustic folk sections like so many others, but the songs are imbued with the influence of russian folk music in their DNA. This results in the tracks being especially melodic, but the band temper this melodiousness with particularly desperate-sounding vocals. A mention must also go to the fantastic production of the album that allows all the instruments equal room to be heard rather than the all-out frantic blur more usual in atmo-black. Thoroughly modern black metal that is many times removed from Deathcrush and A Blaze in the Northern Sky, being wonderfully different to those classics and showing how black metal can evolve and progress when in the right hands. There are leaders and followers, I would suggest Sivyj Yar are the former.