Pummeling towards transcendance
T. Lemos | New England | 05/02/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I would characterize the style Minsk present here as psychedelic doom metal. I am unfamiliar with Minsk's creatively titled and much-liked debut, so I can not compare this album with that one, but what you find here are long, meandering songs that build to tumultuous crescendi, neo-tribalist drumming, reverb drenched riffage, spacey keyboards, and vocals that occupy an agreeable point of intersection between hardcore, death-doom, and Glen Danzig (at his screamiest). I think some might too quickly tout Minsk's odd stylings as unique, but in actuality they do not stray so far from the path tread earlier by the Australian group Alchemist. I would say, however, that Minsk's version of that sound is superior to Alchemist's Organasm CD and more powerful and metallic (and less groovy) than Austral Alien. (Neurosis is of course a point of comparison, as well, but I think that group retained more of a hardcore influence than you find here.) Overall, Minsk's latest is perhaps the fullest, most well-developed psychedilia-infused doom album I've ever heard."
Sometimes boring, occasionally mesmerizing.
Pharaoh | Erie, PA | 10/17/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Minsk take their name from a city in Belarus. How fitting. There's something old and arcane on display here, Minsk following in Neurosis tank treads' with a primal, paranoid concoction that recalls, I don't know, barefoot villagers setting fire to witches or something. This four-piece already have a well-received debut under their belts, and while I haven't heard that one, The Ritual Fires of Abandonment are all them about them finding a groove and sitting in it. You know you're in for a rough time when the first track is 14 minutes long, doesn't get going until 4:30, and ends with a piano. Good lord. I was almost afraid to go on to the next song. Minsk DO have a second gear, of course, which is all tribal drums and voice-of-god vocals, and of course those all-important guitars smothering everything in their path. And when they REALLY get going I feel like hiding under the bed. Very Neurosis-like in their ability to coddle you and then beat you senseless. Occult doom metal shamanism? That's the closest I can get to describing this thing. Be patient and you may be rewarded."
Track Listings (6) - Disc #1