Svet 🇬🇷 The Truth

Band: Svet
Title: The Truth
Label: Northern Silence Productions
Release date: 22 April 2022
Country: Greece
Format reviewed: High-quality Digital Recording

Svet is a one-man band hailing from Greece, Athanasios is the man behind it, and I know about him because I follow him on Instagram since time ago. Sometimes these things happen to me on social media: I find a new band, then I witness their beginnings into music and it turns out that I really like their music and then it’s a fantastic thing, ‘cause I can feel really closer to that band. Well: Svet released a three-song EP in July last year, then a single the following month and I was really eager about their new stuff coming this year. And, just let me tell you: their previous music is very good, but with “The Truth” Athanasios just took a big step forward.

This man does everything in the album: he plays guitars, bass, does the vocals, plays keyboards, drums programming… besides writing all the lyrics and mixing and mastering. He’s even “responsible” for the cover, c’mon!, what a huge work for a sole person. And the best of it is the awesome result! Svet (which means “light” in Russian) plays Atmospheric Black Metal and does it fantastic. The combination between some calmed passages and some other ones that all of a sudden erupt with fury in your ears… Sometimes creating kind of hypnotic loops, as in “Odysseus (Divergent Path)”, gives me goosebumps! When raw guitars are playing tremolo riffs and after a bit the devastating drums suddenly appear… it’s a great effect.

The album starts with a soft and almost ethereal intro, like saying “are you ready for what comes next?”, and when “No External Source Can Save You” enters, with a crunchy guitar that very soon is followed by pounding drums and the hoarse voice of Athanasios, you know you picked the right album to listen to. I love the changing tempos all through the song, and the moment (near the end of this track) when drums totally disappear for a while and guitar takes control with that dark tone, creating a thick and somber atmosphere. Then, drums enter again with the bass pedal steaming and more tremolo riffs join a bit later, like in a trance… Simply fantastic.

My favorite track in this album is “Where The Sun Does Not Exist”, more than 7 minutes of pure beauty: it starts calmly, only guitar and a whispering voice, like an enchantment, and after a minute the vocals turn more harsh and drums enter, in a mid-paced rhythm, and the spell goes on when they speed up along with the tremolo riff… Then, after a while, Athanasios shows his skills at wild harsh screams, and the atmosphere turns thicker with the constant drum beat, until a soft and fanciful calm appears and it’s pure delight, with the addition of keyboards playing long vibrating notes. There are still more guitars in a raw tone and more blasting drums and screams to come towards the end, and I’m in awe during the whole song. That’s it. 

What impresses me the most is the natural ability of Athanasios reflecting a high dose of melancholy in his music using all those varied tempos: sometimes all the instruments crush you mercilessly, other times you feel wandering across an empty field of loneliness. Keyboards are used wisely, not abusing, only emphasizing the strong sense of despair at some points (for example, at the beginning of “A Wizard’s Spell”). And this is a pretty accurate description of Atmospheric Black Metal for me, all these elements together. I’m surprised and overwhelmed with the debut full-length album by Svet. I give it 9/10   Sílvia

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9/10 Epic Storm
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