Heh-heh-heh-heh. I am still giggling as I write this. I mean, it is kind of funny. Well, to me at least. Then again, maybe not. To quote a 19th century Russian writer N. Karamzin, it all would have been funny if it wasn't so sad.

Here we have a group of adolescent Russian girls who probably think they are Pagan queens of some sort. Well ladies, despite what your boyfriends have you believe, you are not. Although the music is a kind of mild, unthreatening blackish pagan metal with keyboards (they of course use the term "romantic"), I could still listen to it without puking too much. But the vocals...man, the vocals... Before I started throwing up I laughed my head off. I'll just put it this way, Kari Rueslatten can rest assured that there is nobody in Veksha camp who can stand up to the task of challenging her throne as a queen of clean, angelic vocals. We are talking tiny, squealing voices that make you wonder if these girls' egos made them think that they could really pass them off for something other than ridiculous pantomime. It also made me think of Cadaveria from OperaIX who eats this kind of stuff for breakfast.

The funniest thing, however, is that in conjunction with their already silly voices the intonations of their singing gave me flashbacks of old children's songs straight out of Soviet-era cartoons and kids' TV shows. Anyone from the former Soviet Union will know what I mean and have a good laugh. If you are not, then you will just be irritated and feel like smashing your stereo, so my advice to you: don't bother with it. The music sounds edible in some places, so I give them credit for that, but the vocals will undoubtedly turn off any self-respecting metalhead even if he is willing to go along with the music.

One thing is certain though, if my teenage cousin who spends her free time listening to disposable teen-pop acts decides to turn pagan and listen to black metal, I'll give her this. Ha-ha-ha.

Simargl Productions:
c/o Valery Kaminsky
P.O. Box 12
Smorgon, 231000
Belarus

© 2000 boris