Review: Obiymy Doschu – Відрада (Vidrada)

Style: Progressive rock, post-rock, folk (clean vocals, Ukrainian lyrics)
Recommended for fans of: Riverside, Porcupine Tree, The Pineapple Thief
Country: Ukraine
Release date: 30 May 2025

Let’s address the elephant in the room right away: How do you offer fair, critical insight into an album by a band from a war-torn nation—especially when the conflict is ongoing and the album is, by all appearances, rife with both overt and metaphorical references to that very struggle? Though I admire a bevy of Russian art and music, and I studied the language for three years in college, I’d like to make one thing crystal clear: Слава Україні. Now that my biases are laid bare, please know that my intention here is not to flatten Obiymy Doschu’s (Обійми Дощу) Vidrada into a one-dimensional token of trauma or resistance. Political reality matters, but so does the music.

And man, the music really tickles my prog fancy. My review history makes no secret that I lean towards the metal side of the spectrum. However, I make it a point to step outside my wheelhouse about once per month, just to avoid missing the forest for the trees. Vidrada fits that bill. It’s built mostly on soft acoustic plucking, dolce string melodies, and mellow, even-keeled vocal lines—practically the polar opposite of my usual fare. I tend to prefer such elements as textures to break up my metal, while Vidrada instead uses metal to break up these textures, and only sparingly at that. For all the ways it might not cater to my kvlt mentality, the LP more than makes up for it by appealing to my prog senses: non-standard time signatures, unconventional voicings, and multi-layered compositions abound.

Take “На відстані” (“At a Distance”) for example. A lurching 7/8 synthesizer melody and haunting vocal line—accompanied by a yearning string section and various distant, arpeggiated guitar touches—make up the bulk of this track. Right before this would all start to feel repetitive, the song deftly transitions—and this is going to sound weird, though I swear it works—into a soft, barely distorted, not downtuned djent outro. When individualized, these descriptors might not sound like the most unorthodox things in the progressive rock space, yet the overall vibe of the song is a tad ominous and delightfully eccentric.

“At a Distance” isn’t the only track that takes things in a heavy direction at the end. “Істини” (“Truths”) has an immensely off-beat melody (played over a steady 6/8 time) driven by a piano in its opening moments, and opting  for a mournful tone instead of an ominous one. The choruses bring in a distorted guitar with palm-muted chugs alternating to an anthemic melody, and emphatic strings to give the track a different weight than any other song on Vidrada. What makes the track truly stand out, though, is the death metal growl that comes completely out of left field towards the end. Being the penultimate track, the changeup feels like a world where Opeth had only ever written Damnation-style albums and then threw in a “Ghost of Perdition” intro in the back half of a random song. The switch is so jarring that I don’t think it entirely works, but it certainly gets points for shaking things up.

“Truths” and “At a Distance” stand apart on Vidrada, diverging from the album’s prevailing blend of sweetness, tenderness, and hope. That amalgam is present not just in the gentle melodies and soft instrumentation, but also in the lyrics. While some of the text makes direct reference to the tragic and unjust conflict in Ukraine, the message doesn’t ask for your pity, instead it yearns for the light of a better day. “Після війни” (“After the War”) prays: “After the war we will return to our cities to live as we should; playing with children under clear skies. Breathing in the world with full, open hearts.” These aren’t tunes and words for war drums, they’re lullabies for survival, and I am touched on some level by almost all of them.

Many individual moments on the album really tug at my heartstrings, and most of said moments seem to include a beautiful, driving, staccato string accompaniment. Vidrada’s closer “Не опускати руки” (“Don’t Give Up”) is probably the standout in this regard. The song builds up to its wonderful outro, and releases with emotive strings that add to an anthemic vocal chant and rallying cry. The title track “Відрада” (”Refuge”) has a chorus with strings that punctuate the melody and punch-uate you right in the feels, and it’s yet another track with a bright outro. Other moments, however, lean a bit dull and overstay their welcome. The opening minutes of this album, for example, had me afraid I was going to have to trudge through it. “Діти” (“Children”) starts with a guitar motif that, in contrast to the majority of the album, makes me feel nothing. Thankfully, these moments were rare.

Taken as a whole, Vidrada is a remarkably cohesive and emotionally articulate record. While not devoid of virtuoso pyrotechnics or overt heaviness in the music and lyrics, those aren’t its driving forces. Rather, empathy and optimism carry the melodies and message of this release. It’s not flawless nor pioneering, and some stretches drift a little too far into saccharinity, but even the lulls feel like part of the album’s greater patience and poise.

Слава Україні

Recommended tracks: Refuge, Don’t Give Up, At a Distance, Truths
You may also like: Iamthemorning, Haven of Echoes, Esthesis, Fjieri
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Related Links: Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify

Label: Independent

Obiymy Doschu is:
Volodymyr Agafonkin — vocals, acoustic guitar, music (1, 3–8), lyrics
Mykola Kryvonos — bass guitar, producing
Yaroslav Gladilin — drums
Olena Nesterovska — viola, music (2)
Yevhenii Dubovyk — piano, keyboards
Oleksii Perevodchyk — electric guitars

With guests:
Kateryna Nesterovska — violin I
Anastasiia Shypak — violin II
Artem Zamkov — cello
Karina Sokolovska — back vocals
Mariia Zhytnikova — back vocals (1, 4)
Andriy Tkachenko — extreme vocals (7)
Oleksiy Katruk — contributions to guitar parts

1. Volodymyr Agafonkin — idea, photo
   Viktoria Groholska — watercolor painting
   Kateryna Yefymenko — retouch & editing
   Mariia Agafonkina, Daryna Agafonkina — models ↩︎