BIO

Eskapism is a unique project of two musicians from Western Ukraine, created in the spring of 2015, which represents a aggressive guitar riffs and drums inherent music in the genre of Black Metal, melodic and atmospheric keyboards arrangements, poetry on the grandeur of nature and the night, their beauty and originality. Except own poetry in the songs Eskapism incorporates poetic structure of various other Ukranian Poets as well.

RELEASES

REVIEWS

Eskapism is, as far as I have been able to gather, an Atmospheric Black Metal duet based in western Ukraine and one that, despite having very experienced members, is a fairly new addition to the world. As a matter of fact, according to the bands bandcamp (the only source of information I could find regarding Eskapism, not counting the e-mail that I received directly from the record company) Tales of Elder Forest represents the first full-length release ever from this constellation of musicians. And while this in itself has my name written all over it, the actual reason for my immense interest came a lot earlier and from a lot simpler reason:

Of the nine tracks present upon this album, the last one among them is a cover of a song from another band, also within the more melancholic realm of Black Metal – One who goes by the name of ColdWorld, a band whose sound can be compared favourably to that of Eskapism itself. The track in question is ”Tortured By Solitude”, which also happens to be the name of one of the first Demo’s release by ColdWorld. This drawed me towards the album, but the overall feel and music of Tales of Elder Forest is what prompted me to replay it several times after its inital run.

It should be noted that there is still a clear difference between their cover of the above-mentioned track and their own music – You can easily hear that it is the same band playing, but at the same time they are still retaining their own unique take and sound in regards to their music. For one, they are not nearly as deeply depressive and powerfully haunting as ColdWorld can be when it is at its finest; But they still manage to be very melancholic, very intense and highly immersive. They have taken what they believe they can use and portray convincingly from their spiritual kinsmen and used it to create their own coherent whole (and quite succesfully so).

Lyrically they focus on their native Ukraine, nature as a whole and the concept of Mother Earth – Themes and concepts that fit together quite well with the atmospheric and distorted approach that the accompanying music delivers.

As I often find to be the case when I stumble across a band that I greatly enjoy, I quickly realized that I am having trouble pointing out exactly what instruments were used or how they were played. Instead they appear to flow seamlessly together, blending and becoming something more. Not necessarily a wall of sound as such, but a strong slice of experience – A tale to delve into.

Eskapism  are  a  duo  from  Ukraine  that  plays  an  atmospheric  form of  black  metal  and  this  is  a review  of  their  2017  album  "Tales  Of  Elder  Forest"  which  will  be  released  on  cassette  in  August  by  Folkvangr  Records.

Atmospheric  sounding  synths  start  off  the  album  and  after  the  intro  they  also  start  mixing  in  with  the  heavier  sections  of  the  music  which  also  introduces  grim  yet  high  pitched  black  metal  screams  and  melodic  guitar  leads  onto  the  recording  and  acoustic  guitars  are  also  used  at  times.

When  the  music  speeds  up  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  and  tremolo  picking  can  be  heard  which  also  gives  the  music  a  more  raw  feeling  along  with  all  of  the  musical  instruments  sounding  very  powerful  and  the  songs  also  bring  in a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts.

Angry  shouts are  also used  briefly  while  the  riffs  also  bring  in  a  decent  amount  of  melody  and  most  of  the  tracks  are  very  long  and  epic  in  length  along  with  one  track  being  an  instrumental  that  also  introduces  acoustic  guitars  onto  the  recording  and  the  album  closes  with  a  cover  of  Coldworld's  "Tortured By  Solitude". 

Eskapism  plays  a  style  of  atmospheric  black  metal  that  is  very  synth  orientated  while  also  having  its  raw  moments,  the  production  sounds  very  powerful  while  the  lyrics  are  written  in  Ukrainian  and  cover  nature  and  poetry  themes.

In  my  opinion  Eskapism  are  a  very  great  sounding  atmospheric  black  metal  duo  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of t his  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  cassette.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "And  You  Speak  The  Runes"  "Have  Forgotten  Forests"  and  "Tortured  By  Solitude".  8  out of  10.

With atmospheric Black Metal from the Ukraine, I always have to think of the great Drudkh right away. Sure, this is not quite true, and the first time I debuted Eskapism's debut album, I was taught otherwise. If you put it on it, you could pull some parallels here and there, but to draw a direct comparison between the two bands is not really appropriate.

Actually, I'm not so keen on keyboard sounds in "my" Black Metal, but of course exceptions rule out the rule. What would you say "In the Nightside Eclipse" without keyboard? And even one or the other album would look very old without a keyboard. "Tales of Elder Forest" is one of them, and not because the rest of the musical implementation is not good enough, but because the atmosphere is more important than the trueness or unconditional harshness, as in the first song "... You're Talking by Runes ... "also proves powerful. In addition, an acoustic guitar is sometimes used in this song, which underlines the atmosphere. The harsh sound of the Ukrainian and Slavic languages ​​in general fits (for me) very well with Black Metal, which I would like to emphasize here. For those who, like me, do not understand the lyrics, these are also available in English in the booklet, which is a very fine move. Since the vocals are also covered with a gentle distortion, which gives the mangy croaks even more relentlessness, this album is even more of a safe choice for me. Likewise, because it lyrically deals with nature and poetry.

Lightning fast, usually my favorite speed, it is on this album rather less. That bothers me here but not at all. The two Ukrainians Dyvozor and Zymobor create much more atmosphere with their guitar melodies and the keyboard support, than they would have to produce them by frantic speed. Of course, here is also geblastet, but that is not the main focus. The last song in a cover song then struck a different note and honored the Erfurt depressive black metal band Coldworld with a song of their debut album.

On "Tales of Elder Forest" a great bridge between modern and older Black Metal is struck. The pretty good sound provides a great basis for the atmosphere created by distorted vocals, beautiful guitar melodies and keyboard sounds. I am positively surprised by this music and see in my mind a nasty dwarf, who passes on stories from the forest of the distant past to the younger generation in a nocturnal winter forest around the campfire.

Whilst listening to atmospheric black metal from Ukraine, I always think about the awesome Drudkh. Well, it is not exactly this, I know, and I was listening to the debut of Eskapism. A direct comparison of these bands is not appropriate, but here are a few analogies.
I'm not loving keyboards in "my" black metal much, but the exception proves the rule! What would be "In the Nightside Eclipse" without a keyboard, hm? And one or another album would be nothing without a keyboard, too. "Tales of Elder Forest" is one of them. Not because the rest of the music is not good enough, but because the atmosphere is much more important than trueness or absolute heaviness. Just listen to "... You're Talking by Runes ...", this song is proving it. In this song there are some acoustic guitars, which underline the atmosphere. The harsh sound of the Ukrainian or rather the Slavic language fits very well to black metal in my opinion. For everybody like me, not understanding it, the lyrics are placed in English in the booklet. Thanks for that. Because of the voice, that has got a little distortion, which makes the sound even rougher, the album is a safe choice for me. Even because the lyrics deal with nature and poetry.

The album is not that much as lightning, preferred by me, but that's not bothering me much. Dyvozor and Zymobor are creating more atmosphere through melodies from the guitar. There are blast beats for sure but they are not on focus. On the last track Eskapism sounds a bit different, because it's a cover song from Coldworld from Erfurt - to whom they pay homage.

On "Tales of Elder Forest" there is a bridge between older and modern black metal. The good sound is a voice for the distorted voice, the nice guitar harmonies and the keyboard atmosphere. I'm positively surprised and I'm visualizing a nasty dwarf, telling the new generation about the past of nightly winterforests at a crackling bonfire, in front of my inner eye!

Written by Hendrik on August 20, 2017