LETHARGIA "Divine Madness" 2012

Lethargia are a band from Russia that plays that plays a mixture of doom, death, atmospheric and gothic metal and this is a review of their 2012 album "Divine Madness" which was released by Metal Scrap Records.
Drums range from slow to mid paced drumming with not much in the way of fast playing or blast beats, while the keyboards bring a very dark, atmospheric and gothic sound to the music, as for the bass playing it has a very dark tone with riffs that follow the riffing that is coming out of the guitars and at times they have a very powerful sound to them.
Rhythm guitars range from slow to mid paced riffs that combine death, doom, atmospheric and gothic metal to create a sound of their own with a good amount of dark sounding melodies being thrown into the riffing, while the lead guitars are very melodic sounding guitar solos and leads, as for the acoustic guitars when they are utilized they use finger picking to enhance the darkness that is coming out of the music.
Vocals range from clean singing, whispers, deep death metal growls and some high pitched black metal screams as well as a brief use of spoken word parts in addition there are some female vocals being utilized on one song, while the lyrics cover Darkness, Satanism, and Occult themes, as for the production it has a very strong, powerful, heavy and professional sound to it and you can hear all of the musical instruments that are present on this recording.
In my opinion Lethargia are a very great sounding atmospheric hybrid of gothic, doom and melodic death metal and if you are a fan of this musical genre, you should check out this recording. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Grief Of Satan" "Divine Madness" "Witchcraft And Possession" and "Evil Habits". RECOMMENDED BUY.

OccultBlackMetal (DoomedToDarknessZine)

This one comes all in Russia. Can’t tell you who’s who in the band. Don’t know any song titles or lyrics. Had I not got sent the band name in English I wouldn’t even know that or the album title. But at the same time just from looking at the album I get a feeling that this is going to be black metal in the Dimmu Borgir/Cradle Of Filth school of doing things. And that can never be wrong, can it? So with that prospect ahead of me I put the fact that I can’t decipher any text aside and hope to be blown away. I wasn’t wrong in assuming this to be symphonic. Don’t know how much Cradle Of Filth there is in the music but Dimmu Borgir’s spirit lingers like a ghost over the music. Albeit a bit more controlled and perhaps not so symphonic. I also get a strong feeling of classical Russian arrangements when I listen to this. I think I’ve found a new favourite to ad to my already rather large list of really great bands discovered in 2012.

Anders Ekdahl (Battle Helm)

I have to admit it, if I read about a release thats it's a mix between doom and gothic metal I don't really get all that excited, their seems to be a dozen new bands like this popping up all the time that just seem to mimic my dying bride but with more keyboards/synthesizers.
I wasn't really paying that much attention to this release at first but let me tell you, this second full length by this Ukrainian band won me over pretty quickly. The intro was a nice buildup leading into "Buried Mourning Hearts" which, while quite long didn't fail to grab my attention. Song 3 is where the action started with "Grief Of Satan" where death metal vocals are first introduced in the album. the song has something very mesmerizing about it and with its 5:10 running time it's one of the shorter ones on here. The album has all kinds of different vocals mixed in, sometimes using whispers to set a eerie mood, other-times using grunts or just even normal talking to create different kinds of specific musical moods.
The disc is packed full with 13 songs clocking in about 70 minutes. While some might find this a bit too long, I don't think thats a problem when the music is good. And luckily this is the case.
It's bit a shame the music is sang in russian with no translation provided in the booklets, I do feel that I miss something here. Maybe for the next release their can be a quick summary about the songs in the booklet.
Talking about the booklet, this is one of the best quality ones I've seen so far from this Ukrainian label, very impressive stuff.
I can recommand this release for fans of older gothic/doom releases, espacially to Russian metalheads who will get that little bit more out of it.

3/5
Tim (Music Guide To The Galaxy)

A new puzzle has reached us: everything in Russian language, even band name, title(s) and lyrics. Fortunately any tracing investigations lead to result: now we know that this is the second album of Ukrainian band Lethargy with 'Divine Madness' as title. The band came into being in December 2007 and plays an agreeable blend of doom/death metal with gothic influences as it was usual in the nineties. And they do that surprisingly well. The length of seventy-one minutes is not quite a task.
Five male musicians and a female keyboardist put down an atmospheric amalgamate of thirteen not too lengthy songs in which the doom atmosphere gets a soaring tinge by wealthy synthesizer parts and/or classical piano and most of all an opulence of beautiful, emotive guitar solos of Olexandr Shirinskiy. One can find loads of diversity in the vocal performance of rhythm guitarist Vitaliy Yavnov: standard are the juicy death grunts, but we also hear clean (solemn or gothic) male vocals, whisperings, spoken parts with an eerie flavour and in the latter part of the album even a few black metallic screams. The band alternates from wieldy doom songs to more lightly gothic tinged tracks, that's why there is enough variegation for the listener. Clean vocals are not always superb, but they fit in the global atmosphere. Since lyrics are sung in Russian, we cannot give any opinions about them, but they should be thoughtful and emotional, so we take that for granted. The band does not pretend to bring something new - and they surely do not - but those who were devoted to doom/death/gothic bands like Paradise Lost, Anathema, Crematory, Moonspell or even Amorphis in the nineties, will have a nostalgic yet fine record within reach with 'Divine Madness'.

80/100
Vera (Lords Of Metal)

Na płycie „Divine Madness” jest klimatycznie, jest spokojnie, jest mrok! Czyli wszystko, co potrzeba do zmaterializowania emocji LETHARGY. Zespół grzecznie może złapać oddech, napić się zimnego piwka, usiąść na kanapie. Nikt do nikogo nie powinien mieć pretensji, bo sekstet nagrał płytę, którą można znaleźć w jednym rzędzie z innymi reprezentantami mrocznych odmian metalu. Pamiętajcie, że zespołów odgrzewających „kotleta” jest wiele i w tym galimatiasie można się pogubić. A to za sprawą prostych riffów, które w zestawieniu z nadętymi orkiestrami, plastikową perkusją dają efekt marny. Atmosfera jest najmocniejszą stroną „Divine Madness”, dominują średnie tempa, nie brakuje arcy-mocnej skoczności, która budują aurę wampirycznej opery. Album niesie ze sobą gigantyczny ładunek refleksji nad tym, co było, jest i będzie. Więcej tu też czystego śpiewu, który dodaje piosenkom dodatkowej lekkości i przebojowości (np. „Evil Habits”, „Contempt”). Rosjanie nie boją się dodać oliwy do ognia, gdzie ostrość i ciężar wzrasta z każdą chwilą (np. „Grief of Sątan”). Gdyby nagrać ten album raz jeszcze, przy zachowaniu wyższych standardów brzmieniowych i konkretne fragmenty kompozycji pchnąć w innym kierunku, dałoby się wyciągnąć więcej. Tak jednak się nie stało.

4/6
Tomash (Atmospheric Magazine)