reviews / 2025

SIVYJ YAR - A Scarlet Sunset Over The Horrid Abyss

Name: SIVYJ YAR – A Scarlet Sunset Over The Horrid Abyss
Item: A Scarlet Sunset Over The Horrid Abyss
Rating: 7.5
Author: Valerio D'Onofrio

2025 (Avantgarde Music)

black metal

by Valerio D'Onofrio

7.5

Sivyj Yar, the solo project of Vladimir Vishniakov active since 2014 and hailing from Saint Petersburg, uses the language of atmospheric post-black metal as a tool for historical recollection and political reflection. “A Scarlet Sunset Over The Horrid Abyss” is not merely a work of intense emotional immersion, but also an act of memory that directly confronts one of the darkest chapters in Soviet history.

The lyrics draw on the poems of Andrei Bely, reworked here to evoke the sufferings of the Russian people during the Stalinist era, with particular attention to the victims of the gulags. Musically, this tension translates into a striking contrast: the vocals, rooted in the harshest, most dehumanized black metal tradition, seem to embody the anonymous voice of repression and suffering, while the guitars, often verging on post-rock, build long melodic openings that evoke space, distance and a sense of tragic vastness.

The result is a particularly successful union, in which each track becomes an atmospheric, pathos-laden ride – from the title track to “The Deadly Fog Drags Forth”, through to the more reflective “Everything Under The Snow Will Hush, Then Die” – capable of enveloping the listener in a sense of inescapable tragedy.

The choice of artwork is equally telling: the cover is an archive photograph taken at the Kolyma camp, one of the cruelest sites of imprisonment in Soviet history.

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14/01/2026

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Valerio D'Onofrio, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition