Published: June 9, 2014

"Bardo. Relative Reality" is the debut full-length studio album by Ukranian doom/detah metal act Odradek Room. The album was released through Hypnotic Dirge Records in March 2013. The band´s name derives from "Die Sorge des Hausvaters", which is a short story by Franz Kafka, featuring a creature named "Odradek".

The Kafka linked band name is actually pretty well chosen as Odradek Room´s music share a bit of the same surreal expression as some of Kafka´s work. Stylistically the music on "Bardo. Relative Reality" is at it´s root doom/death metal, but there is a semi-progressive quality to the songwriting and especially the track structures that make this more than just another doom/death metal release. The music is generally not that complex but the band still display an adventurous songwriting style. The music features both slow doomy riffing, atmospheric post rock/metal sections and more melodic tinged sections. The vocals vary between death metal growls, occasional clean singing and melancholy drenched spoken word sections.

Odradek Room don´t really remind me of any particular doom/death artist and therefore references are hard to make, but despite that they are not wildly original either. I don´t hear anything on "Bardo. Relative Reality", that I haven´t heard before, but the way the band combine the elements is pretty effective. The band are well playing and that´s a positive too. The sound production is a bit of a show stopper though. It´s not terrible by any means, but the guitar sound could have been better. Especially the clean guitars, which sound slightly underproduced (demo sounding). It´s not a major issue though.

"Bardo. Relative Reality" wasn´t an album that impressed me right off the bat, but the longer I got into the album, the music unfolded with rich variation and melancholic depth. So upon conclusion I can say that it´s an interesting doom/death metal album. It´s not perfect to my ears and especially the sound production could have been better, but Odradek Room profits on their varied songwriting.