Old Silver Key
Tales Of Wanderings

Enchanting, romantic, dreamy, magical, fairy-tale-like, delight...zzzzzzzzzzzzz... snore.

Well, let's say it was somewhat expected: anyone who followed the Ukrainians Drudkh up to their last album "Handful Of Stars" will remember the slight change of direction taken by the band towards certain post-rock-ish sounds that have been so trendy in recent years among more modern "black" (quotation marks needed) metal bands. Frankly, I already had a feeling: could it be that our Drudkh, uncompromising and reserved blacksters, have been softened by Alcestian music and are now teaming up with the good, arrogant little Frenchman Neige? A question that, partly due to its absurdity, soon ended up in oblivion, only to discover, a few months later, that a new project named Old Silver Key was born, the result of a collaboration between Neige (this time only on vocals) and the members of Drudkh themselves!

And so, here we are with a new, yet another post-rock/shoegaze black-ish release that merely inflates even more a genre in continuous expansion; a ferment that, on one hand, has contributed to creating absolutely deserving and promising projects (randomly, I would mention the recent Deafheaven, Les Discrets, Lantlôs, or also the English Fen, not to mention, of course, the godfather of them all, Alcest), yet on the other, has given rise to a series of anonymous little bands that, sure, came out with some interesting little idea, for heaven’s sake, but in the end, it's just a bore. Old Silver Key, as you might have guessed, rightfully falls into this latter category and has the merit of amplifying a bit of all the flaws that undermine the genre.

"Tales Of Wanderings" is essentially a useless album that adds absolutely nothing new to what has already been said so far, in every possible way, by the aforementioned bands. Furthermore, musically, it is the soft version (indeed, watered down is more fitting) of an excellent record like "Handful Of Stars": the songwriting is still by Roman Saenko and associates (and you can definitely tell), but this time devoid of passion, fairly academic, and sterile; the result is a miserable handful of insipid songs, seemingly dreamy and poetic but fundamentally cold and soporific, which one does not feel the slightest need to listen to again once they are finished.

Not only that: upon closer listening, the "post-rock/shoegaze black-ish" label attached to the album earlier would even be technically incorrect. The coordinates on which "Tales Of Wanderings" tries to settle are rather vague and uncertain: there's little to no shoegaze, given the thin and lifeless sound of the guitars from which occasionally emerges some interesting effect; and we’re not even talking about black metal, unless one wants to consider those couple of lukewarm, contextually out-of-place accelerations as a black component! In the end, what Old Silver Key offers us with this album is merely a cold broth of soft-metal and overly generic post-rock.

The lack of ideas translates not only into quality but also quantitatively: "Tales Of Wanderings" consists of only seven tracks (for a total of just 37 minutes), including an insignificant intro and an instrumental that leaves no mark; and if we consider that of the remaining five only a couple maintain decent levels ("Burnt Letters" and "About Which An Old House Dreams", both at the end), then there's little else to say. "Cold Spring" and "Star Catcher" have convincing main riffs but lose themselves in improbable, vague post-rock musings that aim (in vain) to be dreamy; "November Nights Insomnia" floats between calm choruses, which are somewhat an Alcest stereotype, and an awkward acceleration thrown in halfway through. End.

And what about Neige? I’ve always appreciated his vocal abilities, both in his ethereal singing and especially in his piercingly high-pitched scream, but his voice here, somewhere between mumbling and a soporific lullaby, is the weakest I've ever heard from him.

A lost battle on almost every front, from originality to expressiveness. "Tales Of Wanderings" will soon slip into oblivion along with this unnecessary collaboration, unless our heroes want to prove us wrong in the future with something more personal and focused. But, considering that both parties are quite busy with the release of their respective new albums (undoubtedly better than this tripe), I believe the "old silver key" will just end up rusted and forgotten in complete indifference...