The Russian underground is a scene that is immensely dense in both history and output. One can go as far back as the late 1980s, with bands such as PREISPODNYAYA, KREMATOR and RUSSKAYA ZIMA laying the foundation of extreme music in the Russian Heavy Metal community. An explosion in prominence occurred in the mid 1990s, driven largely by the Blazebirth Hall movement, through bands such as FOREST, BRANIKALD and NITBERG, to which some would call attention to the controversial nature of their musical themes. One of the bands that appeared from the Russian underground in the 1990s is the prestigious OLD WAINDS. Formed in 1995, the band struck first with a trio of demos spanning from 1996 to 1999, before unleashing their debut full-length album, “Религия духовного насилия | Religion Of Spiritual Violence”, in 2002, “Oбжигающий холодный | Scalding Coldness”, followed as their sophomore effort in 2005, considered by many critics as a bastion of Russian Black Metal. Darkness Shall Rise Productions has recently reissued “Oбжигающий холодный | Scalding Coldness”, which has not seen official reproduction in a great number of years. 8 tracks spanning 40 minutes of true freezing Russian Black Metal, brought back from death for the next generation of serious underground music fans. Led, in principle, by the trio of Kull, Kholdogor and Morok, with additional assistance from Izbor on percussion, this is a concise and serious affair, devoid of the tricks and flash that have become staples of the Black Metal world. Rather than opt to use studio techniques to try and create a “raw” or primal sound through driving the treble up on guitars, overloading vocals and deliberately manipulating production properties, OLD WAINDS relies on staunch musicality, surprisingly animated production principles and the primeval strength of sheer expert-level composing to craft, invoke and maintain an atmosphere of malice and desolation, one that is present in each beat and measure. Opening with the title track, a sweeping epic of eight minutes, the band draws the listener in on driving mid-tempo rhythm coupled with the blare of minimalist chord structures. The minor voicing and choice of tonal progression is stark and barren, like the first snowflakes of an impending blizzard, building into different phrases, flowing into the first set of vocals. The song twists and shifts intensity with commanding force, moving from mid-tempos to aggressive blast beats coupled with gorgeous melodic riff crafting. The production immediately establishes itself as a tight pairing to the band’s artistic composing. Riffs are sonically highlighted with a surprisingly full-bodied tone that gives punch to chords and a terse crispness to single-note tremolo, percussion features a boxy bass drum with pistol-like snare, and the vocals are clear and clean. ‘Стылое дыхание зимы | Freezing Winter Breath’ shows a more direct and confrontational approach, establishing an aggressive narrative immediately, delivering in a compact burst of double bass and grinding guitars that writhe in atonal melody. Basic chord shapes and progressions fuse to fast oscillation of snare and bass drum, an approach to composition taken by many, many second wave bands, creating a constant state of tension and movement. Amplifying the chaotic rhetoric further is the pulverizing ‘…Во взгляде мёртвых | …In The Glance Of The Dead’, easily the most confrontational denunciation on the album, existing largely in upper tempos and unfurling like early tracks from IMMORTAL, purely primitive, unpolished and minimalistic. The interaction of the two guitar tracks, at times, creates deeply hypnotic pairings of rhythm and melody. Splitting the album in half is the electronic instrumental ‘В забытых тёмных сферах | In The Forgotten Darkened Spheres’, serving as a bit of respite after nearly twenty unbroken minutes of primal Black Metal attack. The second half of the album continues the onslaught, with the Black Thrash aggression of ‘Сквозь ледяные пустоши леса | Through Icy Wilderness Of The Forest’, the atonal shrieking of the opening solo on ‘Волки в белом | Wolves in White’ and the final decapitation strike delivered by the pair of closing tracks. Fans of acts such as OBTAINED ENSLAVEMENT, early IMMORTAL, HATE FOREST and ARCKANUM having something within that sonic realm to herald again, and those who haven’t heard “Oбжигающий холодный | Scalding Coldness” or the OLD WAINDS name, but are fans of the primitive and lethal side of second wave Black Metal, will certainly want to check this out. For more information on OLD WAINDS, see www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565691417094, and for more updates on Darkness Shall Rise Productions, check out www.facebook.com/darknessshallriseproductions.