TOVARISH "If The War Comes Tomorrow"

TOVARISH

"If The War Comes Tomorrow"

TOVARISH is a Russian word that roughly means "friend", but there's not much friendly in the work of this collective. I'm not quite sure if TOVARISH are die-hard Communists or just making use of Russian/Communist tropes, but song titles like "Capitalism In Decay", "They Know" and "In The Language of Firepower" suggest a heavily leftist bent.

This is pretty bleak stuff and confusing as well. There is a lot of roaming between styles and it doesn't come across as harmonious. The first two tracks "They Know" and "Capitalism In Decay" are massive chunks of grinding death/doom mixed with samples, animal roars and swaths of synth. These tracks and the concluding title cut are crushingly heavy, but everything else is coming from a different place. "We Slept" is calm and depressing, with subdued guitar noodling, "Silver and Lead" almost has a droning black metal feel and "The Year Without Summer" and "To Hide Is To Survive" are more like gloomy post-punk, which is a sound I'm not particularly fond of. The vocals for the most part are incomprehensible snarls and roars except for a couple of tracks when what sounds almost like female gospel vocals show up. The female vocals don't really work all that well.

All in all, this is one big steaming cup of WTF? that's as cheerful as a walk through a children's cancer ward. Judging by the ugliness of our current society, this might be entirely fitting, but approach TOVARISH with caution.

ARGONAUTA RECORDS

TOVARISH