Precambrian

Precambrian - Glaciology
Primitive Reaction, 2019

Glaciology:
1. Voice of Snow
2. Cryolithozone
3. Firn
Proarkhe:
4. Basalt
5. Lava
Aeon:
6. Permafrost
7. Sulphur







I've been eagerly awaiting new material from this project for a quite a while, to the point where I was worried Saenko had lost interest and was giving up on writing new material for it as he has with so many of his other projects. Then all of a sudden "Glaciology" was out! This is not a new full-length, but instead a trilogy of EP's of sorts. It features the new Glaciology EP and the previous two EP's for the first time on CD. I guess it took so long to get this project going again that they just decided to put out a CD version of the new EP with the old ones. I think this was a stellar idea, as I do like having CD versions of what I own on vinyl.

The new material from "Glaciology" is very good and certainly in line with the prior two releases. "Voice of Snow" was less than a minute ambient intro and I was sort of disappointed that was how the EP was introduced, hoping for three new entire songs. But then when we look at "Cryolithozone" we see that this song is an epic length clocking in at nearly fifteen minutes. No wonder they had to explore other options outside of a 7" release. "Cryolithozone" is actually quite a different direction for Precambrian, because it has lot of ambient breaks in between the intense metal parts. The Ambient sections drone on for a while, but it has that interesting harsh rawness that I love about Precambrian so it fits.

"Firn" is a more reasonable length of nearly eight minutes and this one doesn't feature any of the ambient elements of "Cryolithozone". In fact, "Cryolithozone" is probably a similar length if you get rid of all the ambient sections. "Firn" sits comfortably within the Precambrian atmosphere having that sort of droning quality to the riffing. I think these two new songs are even more droning than the previous songs now that I'm re-listening to things like "Basalt". "Basalt" has a couple sections that groove very nicely, but the "Glaciology" EP seems to be more about harshness and flow, I assume to keep within a theme of flowing ice.

I really can't wait for a full-length from this project and I hope one will eventually surface. Now that they've transitioned to printing CD's maybe there is hope for one in the coming future... Either way "Glaciology" is a great addition to their discography and if you're just delving into the project it's a great starting point as it collects all the prior recordings.

Precambrian - Aeon
Primitive Reaction, 2016
Genre: Black Metal

1. Permafrost
2. Sulphur














After a couple years the musicians behind some of the best Ukrainian Black Metal are back with two more tracks in their latest project called Precambrian. "Proarkhe" was an excellent release that had especially good atmosphere amongst the intense Black Metal. I was sort of hoping they'd move onto the full-length with this project, but if all they're going to do is release two songs on a 7" release once in a while that would actually be a really interesting medium to present the project. As before there is no information on the limitation on the release. I really like the album art they're choosing for these projects and it really fits the music very well.

This release opens up with "Premafrost" which actually breaks from the intense atmosphere for some really catchy moments that work extremely well in the grand scheme of things. The first thing you'll notice about this track is that the drum performance is far more elaborate than on the prior release. The only complaint I could render to this is they go a little overboard with hitting the china cymbal. Or at least it's way too high in the mix, to the point where it's distracting. Other than that it's another excellent song. The only other issue with the recording is the vocals are far lower in the mix than the prior release, so that kind of hurts the recording a little bit. Not too much though, because the songs really do manage to hold their own. "Sulphur" doesn't have has much of an issue and the drummer didn't add any over the top elaboration this time around, so the track feels a lot more smooth. However, this song doesn't have the kind of riff that hooks you like the first, so "Permafrost" stands out a bit more to me on this release.

In the end this is another excellent installment of Precambrian and I hope there will be more to come over the years now that the Blood of Kingu project has been put to rest. I almost wonder if they're going to shift gears over to Precambrian instead and maybe work on releasing material in this regard. If we lose Blood of Kingu to gain Precambrian, I'll be all right with that. Excellent songs, I look forward to hearing more from this project!

Precambrian - Proarkhe
Primitive Reaction, 2014
Genre: Black Metal

1. Basalt
2. Lava














The members of Drudkh, Blood of Kingu, Rattenfanger... and well lots of other projects apparently had some extra material kicking around from when they were working on new music and it just didn't quite fit into their other project concepts. So now we have Precambrian. The Precambrian is an historical period that spans back to the earliest formation of the Earth before the explosion of life in the Cambrian period. Just by the name alone you can expect a far more earthy and primitive sound. The cover even features lava floes.

This first release of two songs is pressed on 7" vinyl and I'm sure it's limited in some capacity, but there is no limitation information listed. The music is, essentially, what you'd expect from a project featuring these musicians. I usually enjoy the music they create and I'm not surprised to find I quite enjoy this material as well. The music in terms of mood and atmosphere is a little different from their other projects, but it's probably most closely related to the final Blood of Kingu album. However, I feel like Precambrian is even darker and moodier than that material. The song "Basalt" has some incredible moments in there where the guitar riff is so dark and atmospheric and just puts in you in a wonderful hypnotic space. The vocals are more on the higher/mid-range style and fits this music extremely well. I'm glad they didn't go for the low vocals of Hate Forest and instead focused on these, since it really adds to the overall musical space.

In the end, two songs isn't nearly enough for me and this would have made for an incredible full-length. Either way it's a compelling project and I look forward to hearing more from them. For now we have two excellent songs to enjoy!