Radiant – or Радиант, in the original – is one of the few metal bands hailing from the country of Kazakhstan. And because I’ve already have the pleasure of getting to know some other Kazakh musical acts (true, of non-metal vein), for example КешYOU or Gaukhartas, I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to listen to some Kazakh metal.
Good choice? Well, “Legends of the Distant Worlds” (my knowledge of Russian language is a bit rusty, but I think that would be the translation of the album’s title) is a nice album. Power metal with a fantasy theme? Sign me in, without any doubt.
And from the opening “Пролог” I am well pleased, the atmospheric, darkwave/synth intro with a spoken words in Russian…yep, the building of the atmosphere is right…it reminds me of the intro for the song “Zrozen v ohni” from the Czech group Attack, especially with the chosen keyboard tune and similarity of the monologue – but that how the legends are told. Or they should be. I was little worried, for it carries for over 4 minutes, and I haven’t understood the majority of words, but my worries were unfounded. The time has flown like in seconds….
…and the second track “Радиант” shows what Радиант is all about. Vassiliy Babyuk is a competent vocalist, even with the high tones (and helping him with background vocals is also guitarist Vladimir Kravtchuk), the drums of Semion Tirtitchni work like a clockwork, and those guys are acompanied by the Kazakh beauty Elena Pomortseva on keyboards. The music is exactly what you expect from a power metal band. Lot of melodies, nice guitar work, nothing to dislike.
Under the number 3 we can find the song “Первый шаг” and the consistency continues. I have to highlight the dual vocals, although it’s nothing special, of course – power metal is built upon vocal harmonies and choruses. But I like them, so I had to mention it. Sorry, not sorry.
“Долг и честь” is a strange song…first, we’re gonna enjoy a faster drumbeat in some passages, which no one can’t argue against, the high notes I’ve already mentioned above are getting even higher (told you, Vassiliy knows how to sing)…yet there’s a passage (repeated) in the chorus (if I’m not mistaken), which sounds a bit off…however, I am no musician and I am half-deaf, so I think this we can safely pass over. The raspy growling passage, starting at 3:57, was a pleasant surprise too.
But “Отчаяние”, which is next, has my praise. Why, you might ask…is there any change in music or what? Well, not really…but my favourite instrument is heard prominently…yes, you’ve guessed it right, the bass line is audible and I love bass. I couldn’t find any info about who played bass on the album, but I hope guys will tell us one day. And that semi-accoustic intermezzo after 2 minutes mart was like a warm touch to my heart…plus a competent guitar solo again.
The beautiful melody in “Знамя ввысь” reminds me of similar tune in the Scandinavian folk/pagan bands I used to listen to years ago and it’s a confirmation of the folk similarities across the nations. I’ve said it before and here, I am saying it again. Paradoxically, the album clocks in 74 minutes, but I already have a feeling I can listen to this on repeat…especially if on a long drive in the car.
“Преображение” is an divider, another passage of spoken word with the background darksynths. And again, I can’t complain. Apparently this is a concept album, not unlike some later Manowar albums. And actually Manowar and their album “Gods of War” this work reminds me of… not as a copy, but with the story concept. By the way, that Manowar’s album is not very liked, but yours truly likes it a lot. Just sayin’…
After the aforementioned break of the story we continue with “Исход” with a nice double-bass drum work, the voice gets growling again…but it’s more of a raspy growl, evoking the darkness and probably some nefarious character in the story.
“Час настал” hails from the 9th position, and brings with it a rapidfire drums and again, welcome interchange of vocals, and I have to praise also the keyboard style here, lively and bringing the feeling of glory into the overall music…in the vein of the glorious, magnificent tunes…you know, the light organ stuff. And the bass! Bass is here again, relentlessly supporting the drum beats. Radiant is also not afraid to experiment with unexpected twists and song structures, which is also a bonus.
“Ветер разлуки” offers the intro which, again, wouldn’t be lost in any darkwave/dungeon synth opus, but here we deal in metal, so after a short intro we are back into the familiar waters. If you think there’s nothing new to offer, think again – here we have a female vocal as well! Obviously, the music quality stays the same…which might be seen as a strength, but also as a weakness – depending on who you ask. However, I am of the strong opinion – if you didn’t like this album by the second or third song, there’s no point of listening to it to the end.
Dual guitars in “Между двух миров” bring us to the second third of the album (haven’t I told you it was a long one?), and I am just quietly enjoying the rest of the album…there’s nothing to change my opinion to the worse, and the I have already a high opinion about the album, so really, not much I can say here.
“Власть теней” start with an atmosphere-forming intro again, and I guess it’s a shame Radiant haven’t utilize the sound samples in a more frequent way. This song brings back the male/female vocal parts back, although to be honest, the whole song didn’t carry me through as the previous ones. Which is OK, I guess…one can’t expect the whole album be one great ride, there will be ups and downs, naturally…
“Прозрение” is the opening of the third act, or the last third of the album, if you wish…those of you fluent in Russian can enjoy the continuation of the story, but I like the sound of the language… from what I have learned from a short chat with Vassiliy, the band would like also to release the English version of the album, but I think it would be a mistake…there’s a magic in the stories told in the languages different than those we understand. At least, that’s how I view it.
The tunes of “Тьма или свет” I welcomed dearly, it again introduced the darker elements into the play, from the deeper, heavier tones of the keyboards and guitars, to the repeated raspy growling vocals, and the different phrasing of the lyrics makes this a really refreshing experience. Because, let’s not lie, too much of the same, even when it’s well played and likeable, might be too much. Kudos to guys to make this choice here.
Slowly, but steadily, we are coming close to the end of this album, but before the final tunes, we have “Искра надежды”, with a really nice melody, but the deja vu effect appears, this time not of the likeable sort, as with the “Власть теней”, this song also fell quite flat on me. It has all the ingredients of the good power metal track, don’t get me wrong…it’s just that.
The last “real” track of the album is “Месть” and as a choice of the final song, I can only applaud. Again, the feeling of the imminent danger, the deep, darker tones and the vocals in the lower vocal range…along with the melody and the song structure, this one I like a lot.
And the final…final track? “Эпилог”, that is, the Epilogue. I guess the hero(es) won, the darkness (or whatever enemy there was) was defeated… and I hope there was a some beautiful girl to marry!
So…my final thoughts? I’m not gonna lie, the album is very likeable, although too long and I feel some songs could be removed to make the album little shorter and more varied. But it’s hard to decide, really…sometimes the parts of the story dictate the number of songs and the album’s structure.
Be it as it is, I can listen to it again (and certainly couple of times too). In my book, Radiant, this nice Kazakh power metal band, has done a great work here.
Check their music on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/24tm5L8E5TJiznzNcevdNE?si=k1DdeeeOR8ygBjszq6bD1w
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/radiant__metal/
VKontakte: https://vk.com/radiant__metal
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/artists/B0BJY176BX/%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%82
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%82/1650804191
