(written by Islander)
We have made a startling new discovery through the song we’re about to premiere, a discovery of the Russian atmospheric black metal band Maria Of Copper Mountains. Now we know that the band was founded in the Southern Urals in 2022 by the extraordinary vocalist Maria Azanova, who is accompanied on the band’s debut album by instrumentalist Nikita Sapogov.
The song we’re about to present is one of seven on the duo’s debut album В чёрны омуты (Into The Black Whirlpools), which will be co-released on April 16th by Satanath Records and Afterlight Records. The song’s name is “Колыбельная (Lullaby)“.
“Колыбельная” isn’t likely to put any children to sleep. It’s a lullaby of a different kind, perhaps a lullaby for dead children. It will set spines tingling and nerves ringing like tuning forks.
The centerpiece of the song is Maria Azanova’s remarkable vocal performance of. Her singing is brimming with passion, spans a very impressive range, and carries the Slavic folk-influenced melody with charismatic intensity, sometimes soaring skyward like spears (especially just past the song’s mid-point), sometimes quavering and ululating, sometimes appearing to descend in grief. Unquestionably, it’s an unusual feature for a black metal band, but it makes the music really stand out.
The surrounding instrumentation is equally dramatic, and its power also ranges. After a brief symphonic overture, which quickly paints in dark and intriguing shades, the drums ominously rumble and the riffing generates a dense and dirge-like miasma of buzzing abrasiveness. There are also moments when the steel-wool grittiness vanishes, the sounds become ethereal and haunting, and the drumming shifts into booming and clattering ethnic rhythms, but the song’s finale also includes instrumentation that frantically ripples like a fiery mandolin.
All in all, the song is unsettling but also hypnotic, exotic to these Western ears and fascinating from beginning to end.
Satanath and Afterlight will release Into the Black Whirlpools in a digibook CD edition with a 12-page booklet (limited to 300 copies), and it is also available digitally. See the links below for more info — and also give a listen to a previously released single from the album, “Улетай (Fly Away)“.
That song isn’t as folk-influenced as the song we’ve presented but is still striking. It includes crystalline and celestially soaring vocals — but also erupts in a storm of harrowing intensity.
PRE-ORDER:
https://satanath.bandcamp.com/album/sat413-maria-of-copper-mountains-into-the-black-whirlpools-2026
https://vk.com/afterlightrecords
MARIA OF COPPER MOUNTAINS:
https://mariaofcoppermountains.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/maria.of.coppermountains