Saratan
Martya Xvar

I was trying to find what the title meant at the translating site on the web but to no avail so it may mean nothing or anything this title of the third album by the Polish band Saratan. An album with a fascinating looking album and it is said to be having some oriental undertones to a death metal kind of music. It is an album that is said to have been recorded in five different studios over five months time, sounds interesting even though I have no real idea why they were using five studios but it might only be because they wanted to move about a bit or something like that. Not that those things really matters, what matters is what is beneath that sunny looking album cover and that is a whole other matter.

Death metal with progressive and oriental touches, quite heavy at times and most of all it is a very varied album stylistically. Well crafted musical parts and produced with a sound that is quite strong I would say. The variation may make the album appear as a bit incoherent though but the singer has a quite strong and good vocal ability I would say. I also think we can say that these guys in their oriental fiddlings have managed to built a rather individual musical style and that in turn makes the interesting in theory at least.

Maybe not as interesting in reality as they are in theory but still a fairly good band I would say, they have great potential and it is impressive the way they build their music. Unfortunately they don’t quite manage to build it solidly enough to be a good album as I think it is a bit too incoherent to really appeal to most. They have potential but due to the songs not quite tying it all together all the way it becomes a bit dull to listen to even if it is only 36 minutes long. Maybe for the fans of the genre or of bands trying their own thing but in order for them to really succeed they need to tie it all better together, maybe tone down the progressive and oriental parts a little bit.

Not the easiest thing to get into and not the easiest thing to explain why it isn’t as good as it is supposed to be. I would however say that in this band doing this album we have a group of guys who does not quite live up to the potential that I imagine them having. Martya Xvar is just a bit too incoherent and a bit too unfocused to really grab my attention, maybe you will like it better if you are a fan of a bit unfocused and unpolished progressive metal with oriental touches. It could have been really good but it ended being a bit disappointing, better luck next time perhaps.

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