Conor Fynes 'Пробуждая случайность' - Senmuth (7/10)

With such a vast discography, it comes as a pleasant surprise every once in a while to see Senmuth take risks with his music. While 'Пробуждая случайность' essentially remains one of Senmuth's industrial metal albums (as are the majority of his releases, thus far in his career), there is a clear development here from the typical noise-heavy party metal that defined much of his earlier work. While instrumentally, the album may not be a drastic improvement from the average Senmuth work (although there is still a clear added emphasis towards complexity over energy), the thing that makes 'Пробуждая случайность' better than what we've heard so far from Senmuth is the good vocal work here, which was typically lacking on previous albums.

Fifteen albums in (at least,) 'Пробуждая случайность' has without a doubt, the best vocal work of any Senmuth album. There is a great variety of singers here; featuring some more familiar voices (such as Skandy21, who has collaborated several times before with the project) but also some new singers that haven't been heard in a Senmuth release. Among these is the theatrical voice of 'Estella,' whose dynamic singing style really helps her section shine. Also, the male vocalist J.Kay (yes, I have noticed all of these guests have strange stage pseydonyms as well!) performs here, providing a very weird performance that verges on avant-garde.

Instrumentally, things are a bit better than you might expect from a Senmuth album, but I doubt the album would stand above its peers, were the variety of vocalists not included. Several ideas here are sampled from previous albums, giving a bit of pleasant familiarity right off the bat, but also developing on some of the better ideas from the past and giving them new perspective. In terms of the 'ethnic' direction of Senmuth this time around (for those uninitiated, his style of music revolves alot around the music of various cultures), there is an audible celtic vibe, which is a far cry from the typically Egyptian and Oriental sounds of past releases.

Overall, 'Пробуждая случайность' is a step in the right direction for Senmuth, and a good album by all accounts. There are still a fair bit of room for improvement and he is still a fair ways away from crafting a real masterpiece, but Senmuth's talent and skill is evident.