Country of origin:Azerbaijan
Location:Baku
Status:Active
Formed in:2013
Genre:Various
Lyrical themes:N/A
Current label:Avantgarde Music
Years active:2013-present
Violet Cold draws styles from a wide variety of genres including ambient, noise, house, drum and bass, jazz, classical, folk, shoegaze, sludge, crust, powerviolence, post-rock, post-black metal and depressive black metal.

DISCOGRAPHY

La petite mort Single 2013
Powder Single 2014
Little Death of Huge Universe Single 2014
Acrophobia Single 2014
Grey Cloud Single 2014
My Journey to Your Space Single 2014
Sad​.​Devastated​.​Sleepless EP 2014
Faraway, So Close! EP 2014
Veil of Future Single 2014
I Wanna Get High Single 2014
Fight for Freedom! Single 2014
Ayahuasca Single 2014
Desman Single 2014
You'll Die Alone Single 2014
Space Shuttle Single 2014
Void Single 2014
Lilu EP 2014
Личинки Страха Single 2014
Liquefied Single 2014
Village Intelligentsia Single 2014
Light at the End of the Beginning Single 2014
Baku Nights Single 2014
Infected Cells Single 2014
She Spoke of Her Devastation Single 2014
Fight for Freedom Compilation 2015
Everything You Can Imagine Is Real​.​.​. Single 2015
Jamais vu Single 2015
Desperate Dreams Full-length 2015
Red Ocean Single 2015
Astral Suicide EP 2015
Atheist's Lullaby Single 2015
Magic Night Full-length 2016
Neuronaut Full-length 2016
Cellar Door Split 2016
Anomie Full-length 2017
Imperfect Split 2017
Random Memories Channel Compilation 2017
Dəfn EP 2017
Derealization Single 2017
Sommermorgen (Pt. I) - Innocence Full-length 2018
Sommermorgen (Pt. II) - Joy Full-length 2018
Sommermorgen (Pt. III) - Nostalgia Full-length 2018
Aptek Single 2018
Kosmik Full-length 2019
I Am Isolation EP 2019
Noir Kid Full-length 2020
Noir Kid (Instrumental Version) Full-length 2020

current line up

Emin Guliyev Everything (2013-present)
See also: Void

reviews

Beautiful - 79%
TheFaceofEddie, September 7th, 2017
NextLast
Anomie is a beautiful intertwining of shoegaze and post-black metal. Rising and falling in waves of quiet emotion, Emin Guliyev, Violet Cold’s sole member, weaves a gorgeous tapestry of sound from layers of caressing tremolos and atmospheric synths. Sharp moments rise forth to briefly entertain before settling back into the massive compositions. The drums highlight due to their diversity, changing from electronic beats, such as the expanse of nothingness on Violet Girl, to the rattling blast beats of outhouse recorded black metal on My Journey to Your Space. Each track is an adventure, a story unto itself, composed of little flairs and nuances all held together under a tentative umbrella of post-black metal.

The titular track opens in pure post-black fury, setting the angry stage for the album while also embracing an uplifting major tremolo and synth layer. Lifting the track to the next level is the juxtaposition of the mid song saturated soundscape, populated by flutes and hand drums, with the opening and closing harshness. The four middle tracks shirk any tentative black metal label as they open with a softness of synths or choirs or delayed guitars. She Spoke of Her Devastation is seeped in shoegaze and is built on looping layers of growing sound which rolling drums break apart. The percussion of Lovegaze is fascinating as a crunching and sliding, like gravel being picked up and dropped, makes the beat among crunchy riffs, poppy drums, and looping synths. An emotional female voice enters the album on Lovegaze and provides a lilting foil to Emin’s airy screams. No Escape From Dreamland has an angry buzz about it and rails against an unseen adversary before breaking into the flutes and hand drums which lifted the opening track, creating a symmetry to the album.

A truly masterful composition, Anomie represents a collision of sounds and a combination of musical influences as Emin Guliyev continues to cement his place as an innovating and leading member in post-black metal.

- originally written for Two Posers & A False

A grace that belies the torment therein - 85%
1eyehategod1, July 26th, 2017
Written based on this version: 2017, 2 vinyls, Fólkvangr Records (Limited edition)

To say that 2016 was a tumultuous year would be an understatement akin to calling the thirty-year siege of Ceuta a “brief skirmish.” For all the trials and tribulations endured, last year did produce a heady number of quality metal albums that offered some comfort for the unfolding apocalypse. One of those albums was Magic Night by one-man black metal act Violet Cold, a bittersweet hour of instrumental blackgaze that earned a place on my year-end Top 10 list. Emin Guliyev, the sole puppeteer of Violet Cold, returns with a new album entitled Anomie, except this record re-inserts vocals for a release in line with traditional atmospheric black metal albums. I was greatly anticipating getting my hands on Anomie, but I did harbor a small measure of concern that the inclusion of vocals may spoil the delicate composition found on Magic Night. Thankfully, my fears were unfounded and while both albums share structural similarities it would be wrong to assume that Anomie is simply Magic Night plus vocals.

I had initially thought that the album title was a name, perhaps in reference to the young woman on the album cover. What I discovered is that “anomie” is a “condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals,” a form of social disorder that was first outlined in the 1897 book “Suicide” by Émile Durkheim. Durkheim and others exhort that anomie represents a schism between the collective goal of a society and the individual’s inability to achieve it, leading to potential deviant behaviour. Anomie can also describe individuals ignored and vilified because they run counter to a society’s groupthink. It’s the latter that informs the tone on Anomie, a blistering expulsion of frustration and bitterness that contrasts against the inward melancholy found on Magic Night.

Opener “Anomie” leaves no doubt that Guliyev is upset with the current order of things, the track erupting out of the gate with varnish-stripping tremolo picking and unremitting blastbeats. It’s not long before Guliyev spits out his vocals, offering a rasp that is equal parts venom and sorrow, the equivalent of a hiss escaping clenched teeth. The shift in tone from Magic Night is noticeable but not overt, the change stemming from the heightened energy and palpable outpouring of emotion. Flourishes like middle-eastern guitar and siren ellipses displays the hallmarks of a Violet Cold release. “She Spoke of Her Devastation” is a languid stretching of limbs and though it may be redolent with synths the music buckles under the weight of cascading chords and tear-brimmed wails. Guliyev once again proves that he is an uncannily talented man, being able to play the living daylights out of any instrument he touches and then arranging it with compositional grace. There’s a rightness to the music on the album, a nourishing truth that borders on a Platonic ideal.

The music is also heavy but rather than expressing this through a battery of notes or unspeakable volume the impact comes from the outpouring of grief, rage and anxiety that is tethered to every note. Magic Night had a resigned sorrow in its bones, but the beauty buried in the blues made the experience akin to beholding a carving made from lapis lazuli. Anomie is also beautiful but rather than offering a wan smile at a hopeless situation, it twists its face with grief and lets out a howl of indignation. There’s an air of desperation to the music, as if each song may be the last. “Lovegaze” is a gorgeous track, swirling with vivacious keys, fulsome bass and zig-zag synths that wouldn’t be out of place on a Muse record, but the love feels unrequited, like the subjects know their star-crossed fate will tear them apart.

Guliyev has again delivered an album worthy of praise that stands as one of the strongest releases this year. It’s also the most emotionally draining record that I’ve imbibed in recent memory. After every listen I sat for a spell, silent, trying to summon my spirit and regain my cheer. Anomie delivers the feeling of rueful disassociation that is its namesake and does it with a grace that belies the torment therein. When final track “No Escape From Dreamland” fades out to the whistling of woodwind instruments, blastbeats, mournful synths and impotent screams, the silence in its wake leaves me deeply perturbed. I feel like I’ve lost something that I may never get back. All I want to do is return to Anomie’s shore, but it’s hard when you know your heart will be dashed against the rocks.

- originally written for Angry Metal Guy

Atmospheric Brilliance - 90%
SlayerDeath666, July 22nd, 2017

Violet Cold is a one-man atmospheric black metal/ambient project from Azerbaijan. Last year’s Magic Night was a big hit with many atmospheric black metal fans and Emin has put out another incredible album this year wasting no time at all. Anomie has all the beautiful guitar melodies and atmospheric keyboards of the previous album but the sound feels more fully realized. It is definitely more black metal than ambient but it has not lost any of the ambient elements that made Magic Night such a joy for the listener.

The riffing primarily consists of dissonant tremolo picking but it is always packed with melody and helps to create the beautiful and often somewhat pleasant atmosphere that permeated this album. Violet Cold also occasionally throw in heavier, more hard-hitting riffs when called for, keeping the listener on their toes. The guitar melodies are gorgeous and often uplifting, like the one that opens “She Spoke of Her Devastation.” The closing track actually features a significant amount of heavy riffing, which is a nice change of pace from all the tremolo picking.

There are a few brief folk sections on this album that are brilliantly weaved into the harsh, somewhat dissonant but also uplifting sound that is a real treat for the listener. The biggest of these is in the middle of the title track, starting with haunting flute immediately followed by slow middle-eastern percussion. The track builds up as acoustic guitar and tambourine are weaved into the sound and finally some atmospheric keyboards come in to fill out the sound. A lovely guitar melody comes in followed by a few crunchy riffs and hard-hitting drum fills before the track kicks back into high gear. The nice thing though is that the folk instrumentation never goes away. It remains a key part of the atmosphere for the rest of the song.

The drumming is pretty varied with blast beats, punchy fills and oddly enough, triggered double kick. He used triggers this time around which is odd because normally, they would be a big no-no in this kind of music. Somehow, he makes them work to his advantage and they wind up enhancing the overall sound. There is plenty of relentless blast beat/double kick but the fills, percussion and rim drumming are what stand out as unique and add to the stunning atmosphere of the album. Emin’s variety as a drummer is best showcased on “Escape From Dreamland,” which has the best fills of the album as well as great feather-like cymbals. It has plenty of relentless blast beat/double kick and it is louder and more explosive than at any time on the album. Plus, it is backed by great, sporadic rim hits and a fantastic alternating march in the opening minutes.

The vocals are the typical distant, tortured screams of the genre and they work extremely well. They are perhaps more distant than is the norm but that works to their advantage by adding to the atmosphere. You cannot really hear any of the lyrics but they are in Turkish anyway so even if you could hear them, you would still have no idea what he is actually saying. Lastly, we come to the keyboards. This is the strongest and most diverse instrument in Violet Cold’s arsenal. At different times during the album, the keyboards sound haunting, harsh, pleasant, uplifting, and even a bit whimsical during the folk sections. The ambient sections on this album are very pleasant too. Violet Cold is one of the most exciting new black metal projects to come along in recent years and we can only hope they continue to make beautiful music.

- originally written for The Metal Observer

Abominable - 3%
Twin_guitar_attack, June 5th, 2017

One could say that black metal and shoegaze have a fair bit in common. The genesis for both genres came in the 80’s before they were fully formed: the proto-black metal of Venom, Hellhammer, Bathory and Sodom laying down the blueprint for what black metal became, with The Jesus and Mary Chain and Cocteau Twins doing the same for shoegaze. In the early nineties both genres became fully formed, black metal mostly in Scandinavia with Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone and a raft of others, while it was in the UK that My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and the like became the leaders in the shoegaze scene. Both have an emphasis on distortion based tones and indecipherable vocals: black metal used scathingly trebly guitar tones and harsh screams to create cold and evil soundscapes, while shoegaze used distortion and many multiples of effects, and reverb on the vocals (though not in all cases). But apart from the fact they were a million miles away in terms of sound there’s another difference. While black metal is thriving with as many subgenres as one could care to name, the genre greats from the early nineties are for the most part all still going strong and it’s a scene that has huge variation and thousands of bands, with many bands releasing albums each year that can still surprise you – the same can’t really be said for shoegaze. My Bloody Valentine barring a few live shows disappeared for 22 years between 1991’s seminal Loveless and their comeback album MBV. Slowdive abandoned the shoegaze sound almost entirely with 1995’s ambient and post-rock hybrid Pygmalion before splitting up until their reformation in 2014. Ride, Chapterhouse, and Lush were also victims of the nineties, splitting up in their relatively early days.

Now I’m not trying to pretend that the most famous bands in the scene didn’t influence a lot of other great bands that came about after or that the scene is entirely worthless, there are dozens of great shoegaze bands that came afterwards: Alison’s Halo, Lovesliescrushing and All Natural Lemon and Lime Flavors to name just a few. But for every band that does something new and different there’s at least fifty bands that try to emulate either My Bloody Valentine or Slowdive, and ultimately end up as indie bands with a singer who can’t sing; playing boring four chord songs through a few pedals, or an electronica group with washes of guitar, and either way they just sound utterly derivative. Again I’m not disparaging the entire genre, but these eye-roll inducing wannabees are ten a penny. Black metal may have it’s share of bad bedroom black metal bands, but there it’s infinitely easier to find interesting new black metal bands than shoegaze ones, which are like looking for a needle in a haystack. In the nineties the two genres were a million miles apart in terms of sound, but maybe with the power of hindsight one could see that it’s inevitable that the two genres would inevitably converge, and did to great effect through Alcest, Deafheaven, Les Discrets and others around a decade ago. It’s not the first time the genre has had flirtations with metal, drone with Nadja and doom metal with The Angelic Proces having been established a few years, but the advent of blackgaze was by far the most interesting movement in shoegaze for a long time, and another page in the ever interesting book of black metal.

But why the lengthy beginners guide to black metal, and shoegaze history lessons in an album review for the latest album Anomie from Azerbaijani blackgaze band Violet Cold? Because the crux of the point is black metal has never become a stale genre in thirty years, whereas to an extent shoegaze did. The melding of the two into blackgaze barely a decade ago has yielded great bands, but already it has become as generic, stale and completely uninteresting as shoegaze has, and Violet Sound’s Anomie is the biggest sign of it and the worst album I’ve heard in the scene yet.

There is absolutely nothing interesting in this release whatsoever. There isn’t one moment that isn’t completely predictable, any riff that hasn’t been done a dozen times before or anything here that has any degree of originality. It’s bland, generic and contains nothing of any substance. If we take the first track (though they all sound similar, there is no need to differentiate) Violet Cold are treading on well-worn ground. The screams lost in reverb have no edge to them, nothing that makes them discernible from any other band in the scene. The sugary sweet tremolo picked melodic riffs with a trebly tone played high on the fretboard could be transposed easily into a Japanese pop song if you played it through a clean tone, especially with that simplistic clicky drum beat. There’s a few layers of synth and one gets the feeling they’re trying to go for an epic Windir sound and they fail spectacularly because it sounds like an amplified pop song. The bass is audible and just has an overly warm and light sound that sounds too sugary (as literally everything does on this release) It breaks down into oriental flutes, traditional percussion and but still keeps that same sugary air in these hippieish new age sections, while the saccharine guitar riff that comes in over the top has been done a million times by shoegaze bands across the globe. They play in simplistic chord patterns, while using layering to try and give the impression it’s complex, but one can see through it straight away. When the drums speed up those panflutes are so cheesy it’s unbearable to listen to over the other layers of equally sickening sugary toss.

It’s a blessing when the first track ends, until the second She Spoke of Her Devastation begins with a delay pedal showing their best attempts to rip off Slowdive with none of the talent for song writing and atmosphere, and then just go into more generic forgettable blackgaze. The electronics on the sickeningly titled Lovegaze provide the intro to a bad M83 ripoff, and it’s not even worth going into the rest of the songs. They’re all equally long, and equally hard to listen to, some with female spoken word vocals in an oriental sounding language which gets annoying fast mixed in with the generic blackgaze.

Maybe you’ll like the pretty melodies. Maybe you’ll like the combination of the prettiness with the screams and think it’s different and interesting. That’s fine, it certainly succeeds in being an unchallenging melodic and sugary listen, which might appeal to you. But this is an album where every element has been done a thousand times before in the shoegaze scene, they just happen to have extra distortion, boring black metal screams and occasional blastbeats, so just don’t think for a second that this is anything new. The problems that sprung up with the shoegaze scene with regards to a lack of originality and prevalence of worship acts, has now seeped into blackgaze, and this is the worst exponent of it. Alcest and Deafheaven were great bands who are still releasing interesting music; and while the more kvlt minded black metal fans may not like them for being too far away from the original black metal sound and atmosphere, they’d be begging to listen to them after hearing Anomie – this is the absolute nadir.

Originally written for swirls of noise.com

Good ideas and lots of ambition but the result is very ordinary - 65%
NausikaDalazBlindaz, April 17th, 2019
Checking the CV of this one-man eclectic post-BM project based in Baku, in Azerbaijan, I see Violet Cold has released stacks and stacks of singles and quite a few albums, enough to last the band's fans a lifetime's worth of listening pleasure, since forming in 2013. The latest, "kOsmik" is a very pleasant opus of melancholy yet hopeful atmospheric blackgaze / post-BM music spiced with some spoken-word radio recordings, snatches of what I take to be traditional Azerbaijani music and some jazz elements. Track titles look very intriguing and evocative, with one song titled "Mamihlapinatapai" which, when translated from its original Yahgan language into English, might refer to the intuitive but unspoken connection or understanding that two people facing each other (or at least physically close to each other) arrive at independently. This may very well be what Violet Cold head honcho Emin Guliyev is striving to achieve with this album: that from listening to this work, we can arrive at the same or a similar understanding about the nature of the cosmos and of our existence even though we're all hearing it in different places at different times.

The dominant music for most of this album is noisy post-BM that seems at once cold and depressive but with an underlying optimistic feel that, however hard things may be, there's a purpose and perhaps some reward or redemption, even if it's not a material one. The tremolo guitars are continuously churning and gritty but have a radiant feel. Early tracks are definite earthbound song constructions filled with energy and aggression. Then we come to "Space Funeral", a slow and uplifting piece of haunting and hypnotic ambient BM beauty. The atmosphere is cold and ethereal. If the production had been slightly different so that the sound was clearer, the music would be even better.

The music continues onwards and upwards into epic space-ambient post-BM drama, becoming unashamedly bombastic in its striving to reach the farthest limits of the universe and understanding its existence and purpose. Yet some things about this album stay much the same: the deep gurgly vocals alternating with raspier demon voices and the occasional female vocal (which on the title track is embarrassingly sugarpop disco fluff), the tinny synth percussion, the equally thin and shrill tremolo guitar noise roar. For all its ambition, the style of music and the instruments used are not really much out of the ordinary - there isn't a great deal that listeners familiar with blackgaze acts like Alcest or other space-ambient post-BM bands won't have heard before. The production on the album blunts the sound of the music and I feel there should be a lot more cold sparkle right through this recording. The last track - an adaptation of the piece "Air on the G String" from Johann Sebastian Bach's Orchestral Suite No 3 in D Major - is intended to sound like a message from a plane of lightness through the dark chaos of the journey we've just been through but its presentation and sound quality make it seem remote and sickly schmaltzy.

Some good ideas are present and Guliyev puts everything he's got into each and every song, and yet the overall result just doesn't quite meet his ambitions. It's as if no matter how hard he strives, or what ideas and visions he has and tries to communicate, the tools he has are very ordinary.