Genre: Black metal
Origin: Russia
Released: 2010
Website: Drama
Label: Black Devastation Records
Uploaded: 14.06.10

Drama is a new name to me, and judging by it I would’ve guessed this to be another one of those depressive black metal acts. I’m getting more and more bored by that style, where howling vocals and two dissonant riffs seems to be enough to be labeled as ‘depressive black’. Luckily this isn’t the case with this Russian phenomenon. I know very little of their local scene, mostly due to the overindulgence in NS-themes over there, which luckily isn’t the case this time around either. What we’re dealing with here is pretty much straight forward Norwegian black metal, it just happens to hail from Russia instead.
Many acts try to recapture the old school sound of Norway, but very few succeed at it. Drama’s music can be traced back to the good ol’ days of Satyricon, Immortal and whatnot, but has taken on a much more modern approach. This feels more like what Ragnarok, Setherial and such have developed into, rather than what they used to sound like. On a couple of occasions even some rock gnaws its way into their tunes. Admittedly I wasn’t extremely thrilled by As in empty grave the first time around, but the second time around it started to grow on me. And when it came down to the third and fourth time I really started to get the hang of it. It wasn’t about bringing back black metal to the glory days, but taking it into the 21st century.
By that I don’t mean progression, experimentalism and ultra-digital recordings, but just classic black metal ferociousness with a modern agenda. Around the flame is a seven minutes long thrashing orgy of technical riffing, unorthodox twists and in-your-face melodic leads. But still the harshness and spitefulness of the old school approach finds its way into the end-result. Assault by chaos hysteria sounds like a hail to the best material Dissection put out during the 90ies, and during Possessed by darkness I could almost taste the Shining influences. Irae nominen tui feels like mixing the masterful grimness of Mayhem with the rhythmic approach of Immortal. Drama’s sound is jam-packed with Scandinavian influences, and they’ve really managed to combine the old with the new. Impressive.

Tracklist:
01. About the meaning of the quest
02. Around the flame
03. Irae nominen tui
04. Possessed by darkness
05. As in empty grave
06. In hands of my empire
07. Assault by chaos hysteria
08. Cold has burst to me