Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Album Review: Руян - Наследие

 Руян - Наследие

Artist: Руян (Ruyan) [Russia]
Album Title: Наследие ("Heritage")
Record Label: Sound Age Productions (Russia)
Released: 2011
Purchased From: CD-Russia (via Ebay)

In 2009, a band called Grai (aka Graj, or  Грай), hailing from the Republic of Tatarstan, in Russia, released their solid debut album, Полынь трава ("Wormwood," apparently).  This light-sounding, lyrically-dark album featured a couple female vocalists, including one who goes by the name Rodonitsa, who not only sang but performed the harsh vocals.  Women who can both growl and sing are no longer considered such a rarity, but Rodonitsa is quite good at both and her contributions to that album are notable.

However, at some point after Grai's debut, Rodonitsa and guitarist Char left that band and Ruyan was formed.  The strange thing is that Grai became a much sunnier-sounding band after that, while Ruyan seems to have carried with it much of the melancholy that was at the heart of Grai.  On Ruyan's debut CD, Heritage, Rodonitsa and Char are joined by guitarist Skorb, drummer Filin, and bassist Elk, better known for being a founding member of Alkonost.  Elk has since left Ruyan, as he was apparently only a session member.  So while Ruyan is a "new" band, in a sense, there's a lot of experience behind it, and that shows with the maturity of this band's excellent debut album.

Heritage begins with the much-expected folky instrumental.  Like the Nordverg album I just reviewed, Heritage features the work of multi-instrumentalist Vladimir Reshetnikov --now a full-time member of the highly-acclaimed Arkona-- as well as Yaroslav Morozov on balalaika.  The mood quickly changes with the first proper song, which has a sense of melancholy to it that emerges even before Rodonitsa switches from her soprano and folk-style singing voice to her deep death growls.  The mood, to me at least, is reminiscent of the mournful sounds of Vo Skorbyah, except not quite as brooding or slow.  Ruyan's music is like a mixture of folk and doom/death metal styles, though it occasionally shifts into a happier-sounding, folkish mood, like at the beginning of the third track.

This strange juxtaposition of such happy-sounding folk music and melancholic metal is one of those things that sounds like it simply shouldn't work (as does, I suppose, the idea of "folk metal" altogether, to those who aren't familiar with it), but this is a gorgeous and multi-shaded album.  The fact that Ruyan is Russian and Rodonitsa is a woman (a young and beautiful woman, at that) who seems equally comfortable when singing or shrieking/growling will lead to many comparisons with Arkona, a band that has the distinction of basically being the golden standard of Russian folk metal AND female-fronted folk metal.  Those comparisons are fine, I think, but they don't paint an entirely accurate picture of Ruyan's unique sound.  For one thing, Rodonitsa's voice has a completely different timbre than Masha's.  She tends to sing higher, uses a lot of folk style at times, and has deeper, more death metal-like growls.

The guitar leads are pretty folky and unique, even for this crowded genre.  There are long periods of folk-style vocals and strange guitar leads, like in the middle of the fourth track, "Song About Yarilo-Father."  At times the guitar reminds me of the style of the late Alexander Urakoff from Gods Tower.  The songs often feature various flutes and acoustic stringed instruments like the balalaika, though the impression one gets from listening to the album is not necessarily the same as one gets with a number of other folk metal bands.  There's a pervasive sadness to many of these songs that makes the happier ones, like the fourth or seventh tracks, stand out.  But even in its melancholy, ultimately I feel happy when I listen to Ruyan, like I do with any music that is beautiful and resonates with me.  This is a very talented band, both in the songwriting and instrumental departments, and is truly a world-class pagan/folk metal band on par with the best this genre has to offer.

The only time when Ruyan kind of drops the ball a little bit, at least to me, is on the final track, also called "Ruyan."  This long, mostly instrumental track seems to meander pointlessly before fading into the sounds of waves and birds (which I guess kind of appropriate, since that's how the album begins as well).  Personally, I would have liked the album to have finished on a stronger note, and it's the one fault I can find with it.  On the plus side, the track does have some nice moments, but I find my interest flagging about midway through.

Ruyan is not a household name in folk metal at this point, but Heritage is an album that deserves your attention.  It's very folky and authentic, has a variety of moods, and has one of the most talented vocalists you'll find in this genre.  If, like me, you're a fan of the Russian scene, this is essential.  Somebody please give these guys (and girl) an international record deal.

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