Arida Vortex - Small Toy Soldier (Review)

Russian scene is a garbage dump. There are no good conditions for musicians, and the few that appear are forced to meet the extremely high demand for disposable surrogate. Otherwise, it's impossible to survive. And if we say "modern Russian metal", it always means grinding one note on C1 under blast-beat. Anyway, nobody admire real art.

My Rating: 78/100

Source - metal-archives.com

I will not talk about all shades of our stupid system. I will talk about a new release from Russia. Today, in my headphones, band Arida Vortex and EP Small Toy Soldier. Aactually, this is heavy / power metal - this is a rarity for Russia. Band has existed for 20 years. This is an excellent indicator, considering all the disasters that Russians have been involved in during this time. Nevertheless, a great experience necessarily means great expectations of listeners and critics. During this time, project could already try many different patterns and develop its own unique style.

But here there is no noticeable unique style or at least some original idea. Сomposer did his job simply: joined the known patterns, but in such a way that the diversity seemed. For this reason, we hear something very familiar. For example, lyrics, general constructions, chorus and vocal parts in second track (Riders Of Steel) is very similar to Never Surrender (Takayoshi Ohmura). And there are a lot of similarities in album, although there are only four tracks. I can not say that this is the best idea, but it sounds cool. Perhaps, this is all that can be said about the composer, since here there is an emphasis on overall constructions.

Vocalist is good. Performance at highest level. It turned out badly the change of key in second track. But in general, we can say that vocalist showed himself perfectly.

Instrumental parts are also performed magnificently. General melodic picture, general aggressive constructions - we can say that instrumental parts are diverse. Instrumentalists are clearly the masters of their business - no complaints, everything is performed perfectly. Crazy riffs and virtuoso solos are a joy to ears. And this festival is supplemented by a diverse rhythm section - here is standard (for heavy metal) rhythm section formula, and blast-beats, ect.

What can you say at the end? They are very talented guys. But still we see only a copy of Western metal bands, albeit quite qualitative. Russian band, where there is nothing Russian - unfortunately, it already sounds without any sedition. I don't want to say anything bad. But if in 20 years they came up with only a copy of Western metal bands, then I'm not impressed.