Me and the melodic variants of Black- and Death Metal have a fraught relationship lately. A hazard of venturing into deeper waters of dissonance and the more extreme ends of Metal is that these genres have a hard time impressing on that end as they have to balance melody and heaviness. Despite this I still enjoy melody, groove and selectively catchy material but drift away from things that mix in overt aspects of Pop melody. Bands like Massen are instantly fighting an uphill battle for my interest, then. But impressively, this Belarus duo bring some serious skill to the format. Starting with multi-instrumentalist and Black Metal veteran Aleerma (Alexander Ermak or Aliaksandr Yarmak, Metal Archives cannot seem to decide) who seemingly plays guitars, drums, keyboards and sports a deep growl, he provides the material on Gentle Brutality with some grit. Songs dance between Death Metal and Black Metal seamlessly and balance out the more melodic parts in aptly picked moments of brutality. Karalina Nasko (also of Folk Metal band Адарвірог, Adarviroh) brings an alternating Symphonic/Folk Music edge to the songs as well as providing clean vocals. Her violin playing ranges from tense Classical bridges (“Askoma (Sorethroat)”, “Disgusted”) to Folk accents to the more extreme parts of the songs (“Throwing the Stones”). These two distinct flavors mix well musically as the songs often alternate well between being melodically dramatic and heavy. The transitions between the styles create a good flow in the songs with the two modes often merging to great effect.
Other moments, like in album highlight “Corps de Ballet”, the songs carry a great chorus where the Slavic vocals provide the music with a wholly different flavor than most normal Melodic bands. The violin and Metal take turns leading the melody in this song and the result is great. But this brings me to the album’s biggest flaw. When there is not as much synergy between the melodic and heavy, the dramatic melodicism veers very close to cheesy Eurovision-like moments and Karalina‘s clean vocals exacerbate this problem. The chorus in “Disgusted” and the low point of “Together Alone”, an incredibly cheesy ballad, throws me off and lessens my enjoyment of Gentle Brutality. It is a shame, because in other moments Karalina helps carry the songs with her vocals and she even goes into a chanting kind of singing in “Dym Idzie (Smoke is Going to the Sky)” that reminds me of Lisa Gerard (Dead Can Dance) of all people. I would like to hear what Massen would sound like when trying to stay as melodic but searching for more unconventional ways to express themselves. They clearly know how to nail a balance of heft and melody otherwise. It might be that you are more melodically inclined and will not have any problems with the overt Pop moments Massen drift into, so make sure to add a point to my score and check them out. For less cranky animals than me, they are worth it.
