SYMPHONY OF DESTRUCTION

SOD#57
OBLAKA
« Insight » – Flexi 7″
1st press 275 Black – 10/2019
Screenprinted (back) Flexi as Cover
Insert 7″

AVAILABLE 4€

Artwork by Raison d’Etre Art
Screenprinted at Ol’Dirty Hands

REVIEWS:

(MRR) OBLAKA is from Yakoutsk, which is proclaimed to be the coldest city in the world. When I listen to a band coming from such an uncommon land I am most interested in how it is to live in such a place, and I look for the bands to tell me via their music, instead of wanting the music to be elevated by its location. OBLAKA sounds isolated, damaged, weird; all attributives based on the liberating hopelessness, which is: they can do whatever they want at the end of the world. They remind me of less experimental TORPUR from current times and occasionally a less-evil SEXDROME. Sound-wise it’s loose, rock and roll-ish primitive punk/ignorant black metal with a lot more punk, and drops of metal in the vocals and rudimentary tempo. The mania and beat also recalls KURO and the SEXUAL, especially the flow of the record. During research I have found their 2017 tape that contained a VILE GASH cover. When a band does such a thing, it means they are out of reach from some main world, so they have to recreate it for themselves. OBLAKA not only did that, but due to their energy, they have escaped from their shell and now the world knows about them. It is a good story because their music is great.

(Sorry state) Oblaka is a hardcore punk band from Yakoutsk in the Sakha Republic of northeastern Russia, known as “the coldest city in the world.” Looking at it on the map, it seems very far from anything we’d think of as a cosmopolitan urban center, but Oblaka’s blackened crust sounds like it could have come from Japan or the UK or just about anywhere else in the world. The straightforward riffs and relentless d-beating reminds me of a grittier version of Doom, but the vocals are crazier, alternating between gutteral grunts and stranger, pained vocalizations that recall the creepiest, grimmest black metal. With a runtime of only three and a half minutes, Insight is over way too soon, but hopefully this flexi is a teaser for more to come.

(Your last Rites / Best 2019) Russian band Oblaka are based in the city of Yakutsk, which is located a hop, skip and a jump from the Arctic Circle and is locked in permafrost all year round. It’s (((fucking cold))), in other words. But Oblaka’s rough-and-ready music isn’t frosty. The band’s searing Insight Flexi featured three short and bass-blasting tracks built from harsh and hoarse hardcore. It’s always great to stumble on DIY bands located on the fringes, doubly so when they exhibit such a strong do-or-die attitude