PRESS
UNTROP "Pale Illusions of Life"
http://www.metalcrypt.com/
Ukraine has become a very productive country as far as the Eastern European underground Metal scene is concerned. Many of their bands have the needed potential to win some positive attention amongst Metal fans all over the world. The ones with most potential even get signed to labels outside of Ukraine – just like this trio named Untrop, who released their debut album on Russian label More Hate Productions last year. This 10-track album, titled Pale Illusions of Life, displays great musicianship. Much credit must be given to the bands main character, Maksym Mysechko, who has written all the music for this album (while also taking care of vocal and bass duties in the band). Musically the bands debut album is a mixed pack: elements from Gothic, Black and Death Metal can be found, accompanied with some occasional symphonic elements here and there. Kateryna Romanivs violin is also in an important role as a part of Untrops sound, actually reminding me of some of Norwegian Ram-Zets early album recordings. Her violin parts definitely add a nice twist into the songs, no doubt. Maksym uses death grunts more often than those typical Black Metal snarls in his vocal performance, and by doing so he also manages to contribute more of the needed heaviness into the songs, sounding truly powerful and convincing with his throaty growls. They have no drummer on this album, which is a bit of a pity because no matter how well you would try to program the damned drum machine, it never replaces a real, human drummer. On Pale Illusions of Life, fortunately, those drum machine parts sound at least pretty decent as they have been programmed carefully. If I were you, I would keep my ears out for Untrop. They definitely have some of the most potential of the extreme Metal bands coming from their homeland at the moment.
http://www.metalcrypt.com/pages/review.php?revid=9594