Heal the Unhealed
Seventh Station
From their EPK, guitarist Dmitri Alperovich explains his inspiration for the album: "In this specific album, I wanted to bring my personal point of view on my roots as a Soviet Union child. Spending my childhood in the Soviet Union, then youth in Israel, and finally having moved to Slovenia, I went through a lot of different circumstances and the processes of adaptation for each - also resulting in anxiety and panic attacks after all these significant paradigm shifts. "Heal The Unhealed" is a personal reflection on these experiences and the psychological states they brought, voiced through different characters, including the primary actors of the conditions I had back in the Soviet Union."
The album contains six songs, and "Unspoken Thoughts" is the first. It's heavy on keyboards, mixed in with guitars, while drums and bass hold down the bottom. The vocals hit you first...cleans combined with gutturals. It's a unique offering. Leads and old school keys fill the background. There are some minor phasing issues that probably come from this being an independent band. "Seven Digits" features piano notes with spoken words, and smooth, mellow sound. It isn't until the half-way mark when some gravely vocals come in with a dark guitar riff. This is an odd sound, no doubt about that.
"The Heart of a Nation (Nadia)" is a twelve-minute opus. Unfortunately, it exposes the band for disjointed songwriting and a strange, unconventional path to songwriting. Try to find a central theme here...it is hard. The clean vocals are also a bit pitchy. I am not sure what I just listened to. There is absolutely no connection between the clean and harsh vocals, and I am pretty sure they got lost a few times along the way. "The Ruthless Koba" features some really nice lead guitar work done in the Classical music style. The band shows some great musicianship in this song, but what it has to do with the themes or other songs, I have no idea. "All Hail the Moustache" is another lengthy, meandering song that just doesn't amount to anything in the end. Besides some really nice techniques, this is just totally bizarre music.
"The Final Bow" closes the album. At close to 14-minutes, it is another wandering and totally lost song. I have never heard musicians this good create something so disjointed. This album was far too strange and personal to recommend. What they were going for, I am not sure. What they ended up with was an odd and dissonant collection of many different sounds that did not combine in any sort of cohesive way. The album artwork is also pretty bad...I am just saying.
4 / 10
Nothing special
Songwriting
Musicianship
Memorability
Production
"Heal the Unhealed" Track-listing:
1. Unspoken Thoughts
2. Seven Digits
3. The Heart of a Nation (Nadia)
4. The Ruthless Koba
5. All Hail the Moustache
6. A Final Bow
Seventh Station Lineup:
Dmitri Alperovich - Guitar
Eren Basbug - Keyboards
Davidavi Dolev - Vocals
Jure Lopatic - Bass
Grega Plamberger - Drums and Percussion
More results...