CD Info

2010

Self Released

10 Tracks

English Lyrics

Lateless is a Russian Gothic oriented metal band from St. Petersburg. . . Russia that is, not Florida. Unfortunate for me since the Florida location is what I call home much of the time. The music, interestingly enough, is in English, with a lovely Russian singer named Nataly doing the vocals on this production. She has since moved back to Moscow, I guess St. Pete was too far out in the sticks, and has been replaced by another Russian Femme Fatale named Tanya. I can’t speak for Tanya’s vocal abilities but I sure am fond of Nataly. It’s not an opera style but rather a classic metal style, with a perfect vocal for the type of metal being performed by Lateless. The MySpace, viewed here provides an overview of the band and the two singers, although all the music seems to be from the former vocalist. There are a number of clips from live performances, probably from either St. Petersburg or somewhere in Finland, they seem to like performing there, and they do a nice job of presenting the high energy and outstanding musical abilities of the band.

>I’ve listened to this music quite a bit, it’s not the traditional symphonic Gothic I most prefer, but it’s about as strong as any traditional metal I’m aware of, although there are symphonic components throughout some of the music. The musical composition is outstanding, the instrumentalists carry their weight with no effort and the vocals are perfect. The technical components aren’t always Nightwish quality, but there are some interesting interludes, natural sounds that often seem to flow through much of the Russian music in this genre.

Besides what you get with the on line sites, it’s a little difficult to get an awful lot of information from the band, their English is better than my Russian, but they’re not exactly scholars of the language. Consequently, we struggled through our discussions and tried to figure out what was being said. The music, on the other hand, is another story. The lyrics are in nearly PERFECT English and are more than a little entertaining. Either the ladies speak better English than Yaroslav, my contact with the band, or someone’s doing a little ghost writing. But either way, they’re some pretty good lyrics, and some really good music.

Lateless kind of begins with Al Right, a rocker that introduces the strong vocals and the equally strong metal riffs that those vocals ride over. It’ll certainly be interesting to see if the new vocalist can compare favorably with the previous one, who, I am informed, returned to Moscow to attend to some domestic issues. But she certainly could sing, and her stage presence was as strong as anyone I have had the privilege of witnessing. Al Right also introduces us immediately to those strong lyrics I mentioned previously. Natly hits those strong vocals right out of the box:

Is it in my head
Or is it for all that real world
I feel something bad
Something strange, something wrong, there’s no good
Oh, ask of yourself
What do you see in a mirror
Are you afraid
Of your reflection, your hero, your evil?

The music is up-tempo with pounding guitars and a thundering drum, Natly’s vocals ride on a solid wall of sound and seem to take energy from that sound. And her performance is equally up-tempo.

Breath Again seems to be one of the bands more popular selections and one of the stronger presentations. There are a lot of live videos to look at, and, interestingly enough, they seem to do somewhat different interpretations depending on the venue. But, on the CD, we get some nice mixing with Natly’s voice being overlaid, sometimes in harmony, sometimes with completely different directions. The song is more reflective although there are some serious guitar sections, both background and featured. Lateless uses three guitars and they are each quite capable so they get some individual attention in this and other selections. They may not be Eric Clapton but they certainly work with the type of music Lateless wants to perform.

Caribbean is another strong selection. I seriously doubt these guys have ever been anywhere near the Caribbean but they seem to have some feeling for the warmth of the concept. The song, musically, captures this interpretation, there is a natural sound track that introduces us to the music which then flows like the water that proceeded it. But, once you listen more closely to the lyrics, you become aware of the symbolic representation that this warmth represents to our northern friends. Natly sings:

You can feel this life emotions
Anytime where you can find it
In the tender hot embrace of golden sun
In the deep of velvet ocean,
On the burning hot stones, uhhh
I believe in God and I’ll be smiling, smiling, smiling
I’ll be closer to myself
Please forgive me if I betray you, are you, are you, are you?
I’m so emotional, what can I do?

Natly’s voice comes pretty close to operatic in this selection, she hits some high notes that are exceptional. Wish there was more of it, it’s really spectacular.

I wouldn’t necessarily classify this music as symphonic, but there are sections that take you in that direction. One is called Intro, it’s at the beginning, go figure, but it’s real nice atmospheric stuff. It just doesn’t last real long, but it sure demonstrates a capability that should become more of the bands repertoire at some point.

There’s really nothing I don’t recommend on this CD. If you like guitar oriented metal, with a melodic flow and a wonderful metal vocal style, with a message, this is going to be pretty much satisfying music. And, occasionally, those guitars get to shine a little more than at other times. Styx is one of these occasions, the vocals are a little less pronounced and the guitars drive forward. Again, the message is dark and influenced by an understanding of ancient religions. Moreover, the message takes a theme to convey an idea, this one being one that addresses our questionable existence, with it’s multitude of choices and the somewhat perverse assumption that one is always right and the other wrong. The river is the path, the shore the choices:

Day by day he drives his boat
To islands of misery
Black-black bog which the angries must fight
And the sullens must gulp by dirt
Water is black
My river-sky
Right side is death
Left side is life
Nowhere to sun
No way to come back
He’s my angel of dark
It’s my river of hell

Russian music, metal anyway, seems to be oriented in a guitar based direction, more often than not with a focus on what we might classify as progressive or alternative. But, the lyrics, the themes are what set it apart. I find it interesting to hear that the individual bands don’t always know about each other, I guess the country is just too big. But the music tends to be some of the most interesting you will hear. And Lateless is as good as any. We certainly hope the new vocalist, Tanya, will carry on this tradition. Until then, Lateless is first rate Gothic metal. . . from the cold side of St. Petersburg.

9.5 / 10

• Prev
• Next