Former Sovjet Union probably has fertile soil for funeral doom-metal bands. Somnolent is another funeral doom band out of Ukraine and this album is their first full length album. They are a pretty new band that has been founded in late 2006 and after a live demo in 2007, this is their first assault to conquer the world.

The album opens with an atmospheric intro with falling rain and subtle background music. After a while one of the guitar players kicks in with a high lead guitar-riff that lasts throughout the whole song. Normally no problem, but somehow this guy doesn’t know how to tune his instrument! Shit, he totally fucks up the song with utter false sounding guitar licks! It sounds so terrible that I really had troubles to ride this song out!

Unfortunately it doesn’t get a whole much better. The second song, ‘Monochromes Philosophy’, is a pretty decent slow, funeral doom song, but it all sounds a bit too weak and unoriginal. From the low growling grunt, till the song structures and the weak guitar sound. Luckily the false high guitar-riffs are left away in this song, which makes it a listenable song. The other two songs are from the same caliber. Decent doom songs, but they don’t stand out in any kind of way. Fun thing is that all the songs open up with falling rain intros! Oh, and in the last song we have the terrible, false sounding guitar licks again! They definitely raise some hairs on your body, but it’s the wrong kind of hair that they raise.

Somnolent has some references to a band like My Dying Bride, but they are miles away from the quality of this band. This album sounds to me a bit like a band that got a bit too early in a studio recording an album. I hear what they are trying to do, but it’s fucked up by the guitar-player and the lousy song writing. Drop the guitar-player and focus on writing some decent tunes and it might get enjoyable!