It's clear that, although at the moment the vast majority of the best Death Metal comes from places like Sweden and Italy, Russia has a strong, burgeoning Death Metal scene. One of the newest bands hoping to carve out their name within this scene are Kalingrad upstarts ANION EFFECT, who, on the strength of their debut demo, got signed to Necrocromo Music, and managed to put out their debut full length, "Syntyma", an album that showcases a band who are hungry and ready to take on the world. The opening track, "Aamunsarastus", starts as a nice keyboard piece that begins to build into a decent instrumental Melodic Death Metal song. This short piece helps set the album up quite well. Then comes the first full track, "The Truth on the Screen", a good, if slightly generic, Melodic Death Metal song with some keyboard flourishes thrown in to keep it interesting. The lead guitar work is nice an effective, and is laden with plenty of hooks. "In Time" is a song that focuses on being much heavier, with a thick, metallic chug topped with some ferocious harsh vocals. It's a very catchy, accessible song that I can see being a fan favourite in the future.

Likewise, "Talviyo (The Dark Forest)", comes across as much darker, with nicely placed keyboard sections, fast guitars and fitting vocals. This is the point where the album really starts to pick up, and this is one of the best songs on the record. It's a shame that this doesn't last long. "Taliaamu" opens with a cool riff with a nice guitar tone, and some keyboards that really help to beef out the sound. It's a very nice, mid-paced track that has plenty of nice elements to it that really make it as good as it is. "Owner of Mjollnir" is a suitably heavy track inspired by one of Heavy Metal many go to topics; Viking Mythology. The vocals on this track sound mighty, and this is another stand-out tune on the album. "Fear" is a suitably powerful track, driven by solid leads and pounding drums, and all topped by the sort of rasping growls that we've come to expect by this point in the record. It's far from the best song on here, but this is another one that I think will become a favourite among fans. The eighth song on here, "The Way of Redemption", begins with some nice, dark keyboard parts that really help build an atmosphere. I wish the band had crafted the song around this, because it would have sounded amazing. Still ,the song we get is nonetheless fairly decent, another one of the bands faster, heavier offerings, and it sounds good. "Mirage" doesn't really stand out on this album, mainly due to its lack of serious hooks. Don't get me wrong, it's far from bad, but it's nowhere near as good as many of the others on here. The penultimate track, "Legends of the Sea", a another quality track that helps to suitably bring this album to a climax. It brings a lot of the key elements of the bands sound together, from the melodic guitar lines to the much heavier, meatier ones. The albums closing track, "Revolutet", much like the first, is a short keyboard piece that helps to bring the album to its conclusion. It's a very good track, and the best way to finish this record. This is a solid debut release from this band. If I have one criticism of it, it's that, at points, it's a tad generic. But with every degree of fairness to the band, you'd be hard pressed to find a band who have figured out and mastered their core sound on their first major release. There is, of course, plenty of room for improvement, but that will come with time. The important thing is that the framework for their future is here, and I'm sure that what they'll have next will help them make their mark on the Russian, and perhaps even international, Melodic Death Metal scene.