Style: post-metal, gothic metal (clean vocals)
Review by: Dylan
Country: Belarus
Release date: 11 September 2020
So Belarus, huh? This has got to be the first band from said country that’s on the blog. While I have grown to become the ”Russian guy” of The Progressive Subway, releases from Belarus are simply much rarer to come across due to it’s tiny population (at least compared to Russia). But the idea still stands; if my research doesn’t fail me this album is sung entirely in Russian (and even if it were sung in Belarusian their languages are fairly similar) and Russian lyrics are something that I love. But cool intonation can only get an album so far, so what does Weesp have to offer?
The style of it all is kind of out there. It’s very post-y in it’s instrumentals, with it’s crunchy, heavy guitars, synth undertones, and a general atmosphere that’s very unique. But the vocals are extremely unique… in a weird way: They’re very emotional and expressive, but also sound very mature and refined. It all makes for a pleasant wall of sound to your ears, with enough detail and variation between tracks as to not become dull
The album is only 35 minutes long, however it is not an ”all killer no filler” scenario. It really feels like some of the album’s individual tracks shine far more than others. This can be for two reasons; one of them is that most tracks hardly have a proper ending to them that sets up the next one, or it could be as simple as some of the tracks being better than the others. However, the tracks that DO shine such as ”Красный Коридор” shine hard, with the perfect amount of emotion thrown into the vocals, a breath-taking chorus, and interesting melodies. In fact, there’s an even better (in my opinion) acoustic version which really shows just how hard the characteristic vocals can carry a song.
But for every track that is truly memorable and genuinely great, there’s one that just kind of goes through one ear and leaves through the other. For every huge success that suggest this album should get a 9/10, there’s a ”meh” fest that doesn’t deliver and implies this album shouldn’t get anything higher than a 5/10. So I compromised and graded the album taking into account it’s abnormal highs and average lows.
Weesp were certainly an interesting band to discover. Some tracks have made their way into playlists, but the album as a whole is unlikely to get revisited. I suggest you give this a full listen and do the same
Recommended tracks: Железный Край, Красный Коридор
Recommended for fans of: Solstafir, Oceansize, Junius
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Twitter | RYM
Label: Independent
Weesp is:
– Alexey “Lex” Falco (vocals, keyboards)
– Michael “Mike” Zalutskiy (guitars)
– Alexei “Gul” Galesnik (drums)
– Dzmitry “Mi” Budzko (bass)
– Stanislav “Stak” Budzko (keyboard)
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