Russia, a great Nation with one hell of a past. Usually, when you hear the word Russia, the things that come to your mind are Vodka (personally I hate vodka...), tall-white people, communism, the Cold War, nuclear missiles, snow and generally everything else except...Metal!

Well I guess the Russians got us there again (hehe)! As surprising as it may seem, Russia has a Metal scene! A Black Metal scene to be more specific!

Rossomahaar (by the way...Rossos in Greek means Russian (male)) started back in 1995 to prove to the whole world that Russia is capable of giving birth to BM bands. In 1997 they released their first demo work called Grotesque which was later on reissued in the shape of MC-album by R.I.P. Productions. In an addition to that, Rossomahaar recorded Imperium Tenebrarum which was brought into business by CMD Records, MoreHate and Sound Age Productions in Russia.

In our days, we're already full of BM bands (especially from Scandinavia) which mostly play the same stuff. If you take that for granted then I'd say that Imperium Tenebrarum lacks of inspiration. I have to consider though the fact that this is a unique effort from freezy Russia and it's pretty amazing if you come to think of it. I mean...it's like having a Death Metal band from Hawaii (well ok...it doesn't sound that ridiculous when it comes from Russia hehe) ! So, I'll point out that the guitars in this album are quite good with catchy riffs but not something you've never listened to before in your life. Note that there are a few Heavy riffs in there and that it's not only scratching. The keys are cute and give a nice atmosphere (whenever they show up in the songs) but then again, when you've got bands like Dimmu Borgir playing...The drummer, Sigizmund (what a name! hehe), knows what he's hitting there on his drumset. He's a typical BM drummer with no special technique. The Bass could have been better! The vocals couldn't be more typical BM vocals with no variations (except for one or two parts where Lazar does some clean vocals). The songs indeed could have been more, just to show us a bit more of what they can do.

No, Rossomahaar are not bad. They're just so common. Come to think of it again...they're from Russia, so give them a chance. If you're a BM fan go buy their album, I'm sure you'll like it!