The Finnish extreme Metal scene has always been a great Metal factory to release the best records for the international Metal realm, and every year Finland presents many fresh releases for the worshipers of Black Metal, and this year the band LAURASIA AWAITS US has released the debut album "Apathy Remains Victorious". LAURASIA AWAITS US is a post-Black Metal band with doom metal influences, and it has been formed in 2007 and contains of two members only.

Summing both the post- Black Metal riffing with the Doom influences is something I really admire, because a lot of dark feelings and melancholic atmosphere will be merged together in one plate, and the guys of this band have managed to do this in a fine way, but I couldn't hide my hate towards many aspects here, but many fans of the mid-tempo and the slow-tempo riffing will adore the fenced chord progression of this record. Both Lauri Santeri Lohi and Joona Laine have sewed the fabric of this record and tried to cover all the sides of the total environment, creating a cold production and an amateur mixing. The raw sound of the guitar is annoying but cold for such a musical genre, because the post- Black Metal doesn't sound good at all with the modern production techniques and sound, and personally I liked this raw sound because it reflects frosty feelings through the riffs. "Apathy Remains Victorious" contains of 6 tracks, 3 of them runs for more than 10 minutes, so the total album runs for about 45 minutes, which is not a short and not a long album. The artwork of the record is really simple, showing an autumnal vision of the forest, and the woods have always been in a good relationship with the fabric of post- Black Metal music.

The melancholy and the hope are collided together in this record, some extreme moments are raging against the atmospheric spiritual moments, some tracks like "Stillborn Motivation" and "Forget Everything" show exactly what I mean in that collision. The solid recording and the fine performance are shown clearly in the tracks, and some tracks like "Nothing Left to Accomplish" and "When This Is Over" will directly sink inside your ears and force you to sink inside the frosty riffs. The annoying drumming made the whole environment ugly, and some vocals sections were extremely out of control, though there are some good moments from time to time, but there are many things that need to be fixed in this record, especially in the mixing and the production aspects.

Overall, this record is average and I hope the guys of the band will try to solve the problems that have been faced in this record, the combinations of good and bad moments in this record have found this way into the average rating, I will be waiting for more records for this band and I hope the next releases will be more professional.