In 2009, when the leader of the group Alexei was in jail for the third year, the second full-length album M8L8TH — «Unshakable Faith» was released. The album has been created since 2005 (that is, even before the arrest of the leader and the problems of the group as a whole in October 2006), and in many respects carried exactly the mood that the group lived for these years, in the distant time of large-scale street racial violence, which Naturally, it did not pass by Tver either.
\nThe album was released at the iconic Stellar Winter, then re-released in Germany as well. <\/p>\n
The fragments of the reviews posted below will quite fully describe the listeners’ impressions of the album, which has become a landmark in the band’s history:<\/p>\n
«I think after such a powerful debut album it was hard not to lose face and give out a worthy sequel. M8L8TH did it. However, M8L8TH changed noticeably. Inverted crosses and an abundance of black disappeared from the cover. And for good reason! Instead of singing about how everything became bad with «them» (remember «Scum» from the debut album), M8L8TH began to sing about how everything was fine without «them» and, according to themselves, will be in a bright future.»
\n…
\n«Stunning in its grandeur, the song «My Native Land» can be attributed to the hymns of NSBM, whose pantheon has already included» In the Crowns of Centennial Oaks» from TEMNOZOR, or «Black Raven» from NOKTURNAL MORTUM. It is these songs that make you remember your roots, inhale full of the air of your native land and be proud of your origin.Even if the entire album consisted entirely of shitty tracks, but among them was «My Native Land», it would already be a success.However, all eight songs are successful, the album does not sag anywhere, staying strong all the time.
\nFive years of silence were really worth it, people who tasted the honey of poetry, hiding behind the name M8L8TH, launched a ship from the stocks of inspiration that brings death to all enemies and strength of spirit to everyone else. With their two albums, M8L8TH have established themselves as the target for new born bands. Great release!»
\n…
\n«Despite all the difficulties, M8L8TH continue to function and even release albums. What difficulties? A few years ago, the leader of the group, Alexei (who is also the vocalist and author of all the lyrics), was arrested — he is accused of killing three people and one attempt. Accusations, frankly, «, serious. It’s unpleasant to think how long it can result in. Having got hold of such problems, many teams quickly fall apart, but not in this case. Apparently, Alexey is optimistic about the future and bury his projects (and M8L8TH is his main idea , but not the only one) is not going to. Quite the contrary. <\/p>\n
It is easy to guess that M8L8TH had to look for a replacement vocalist in order to release a full-fledged album. Alexander, a member of the friendly project Nezhegol, came to the aid of the act: he performed clean vocals in two compositions. The main vocal is no longer that hysterical shray that productively bored the listener’s brain on the debut album, rather, the usual black metal screaming, but very skillful, sincere and able to serve as a good role model for many «adjacent» bands. The sound in general has also changed — it has gained volume and richness. In addition, the music of M8L8TH was greatly enriched with folk motifs. Pressure, aggression and melancholic moments have not gone away, but perky numbers have been added to them (the apogee of fun, perhaps — «Thunder from Heaven», at least the first half of the composition). Yes, it’s hard to call it pure black. More like pagan with some infusions of black metal. <\/p>\n
From all that has been said, it is easy to conclude that «Unwavering Faith» is made in a completely different way than the first full-length album. This is where fans of NSBM (and the debut album) may turn away from this disc, and in vain: having changed the style, the musicians remained true to themselves, including in the sense of spirit. As always, behind M8L8TH there are strong lyrics, recognizable performance technique, incomparable drive and deep atmosphere. The best tracks, in my opinion: the introductory dashing «Witch’s Fog», the undoubted masterpiece «My Native Land» and the final semi-acoustic «Raven to Raven …» (which is especially memorable — such strong lyrical things rarely come out of the pen of black bands) . As for the shortcomings, I found two flaws. The first is in the track «Beech Forest»: it is very long and predictable. The second one is an unfortunate cover of Burzum’s «Black Spell of Destruction», which, in my opinion, is completely out of place here. An indistinct shriel does not evoke any emotions, and the atmosphere of darkness and hopelessness has been irretrievably lost. Yes, the original remains unsurpassed … <\/p>\n
«Unwavering Faith» is a bright and multifaceted release that does not get bored after a week or a month. Of course, he is not able to cause such a sensation as the «Black Wing», but he is quite able to successfully stay in the player for many years. It remains to wish the musicians good luck and look forward to the new album.» <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[playlist ids=\"601,603,605,607,609,611,613,616,618\"]\n","protected":false},"featured_media":621,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"product_cat":[25],"product_tag":[64],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heretic.camp\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heretic.camp\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heretic.camp\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/heretic.camp\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98858,"href":"https:\/\/heretic.camp\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/680\/revisions\/98858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heretic.camp\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heretic.camp\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heretic.camp\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=680"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heretic.camp\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}