Voidwards are an enigmatic collective formed in 2005. Bagulnik (Aesthetic Death Records) is the first full-length in their career of almost twenty years. The record draws inspiration from a Russian teacher named Ivan Perfiliev and his writings over a century ago about a swamp that he claimed had supernatural properties.

The album is divided into two tracks of approximately 20 minutes each — “Bagulnik I” and “Bagulnik II” — which run directly into one another. 

The first track plunges us straight into discordant, droning doom. The music does indeed feel as though it emanates from a swamp — sludgy, dark, and dissonant as it is. This first track builds gradually until eventually, semblances of riffs and drum beats permeate through the drone. It is fearsome, frightening, oppressive, and not for the faint-hearted. Guitars clash and grind, sound effects bubble and broil underneath, and drums peak through the noise. It is hard at times to distinguish the different sounds from one another; there is a growling sound that could be a wind effect or could be harsh vocals. Either way, the overall sonics are formidably bleak.

The second track continues directly on from the first. Vocals are now more obviously detectable, rising as they do from the harsh and forbidding sea of noise. The words are growled forth unintelligibly and are treated to blend in with the guitar swamp. “Bagulnik II” continues like the first track, with inharmonious riffs and leaden drums grinding away. As the music progresses, listening to it it begins to feel like being mired in the swamp of the album’s inspiration. It is relentless and unforgiving in its cacophonous heft.

The music here is anything but easy to listen to. It is deeply unsettling and often terrifyingly desolate. However, a certain seductive and mystical quality holds the attention throughout this otherworldly journey.

Bagulnik is a record that not everyone will enjoy. Some might complain about a lack of structure, or simply about the severe bleakness and uninviting nature of the music. However, those who can see past this will find the record cathartic and strangely beautiful. With Bagulnik, Voidwards have created an untameable beast of an album that firmly sets out their stall as purveyors of hostile, funereal, depressively droning doom metal.

Buy the album here:
https://aestheticdeath.bandcamp.com/album/bagulnik

7 / 10
DUNCAN EVANS
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