Oktor - Another Dimension Of Pain (CD Review)

01.Another
02.Conscious Somatoform Paradise
03.Dimension
04.Mental Paralysis
05.Of
06.Hemiparesis Of The Soul
07.Pain
08.Undone


Piotr Kucharek (Vocals/Bass)
Jan Rajkow-Krzywicki (Vocals/Bass/Guitar)
Jerzy Rajkow-Krzywicki (Vocals/Bass/Guitar/Keyboards/Drums)

The Polish doom death metal band formed way back in 2003 and are now finally ready to present a full-length album after the years of artistic activity, several successful mini albums, compilations and participation in A Tribute to Skepticism! The long tracks alternate with exquisite piano preludes, as if inspired by Frederic Chopin, demonstrate the diversity of ideas: classical dense riffs and low-tempo interludes, a variety of vocals (from clean to growl), alterations of mood and rhythm … Clean sound of all instruments underlines the high quality of musicians many-years-long searching for their own style.

Well starts with a bloody piano intro as a seperate track and then gets going with the 12 minute piece 'Conscious Somatoform Paradise' and it's pretty good, nice mix of doom, melody and funeral doom like the different vocal styles from growls to clean, works well as does the beautiful slow and melancolic breakdowns with gentle classical precision.

My joy at this first proper song is knocked slightly when track 3 is another short piano filler, which as it acts as an intro to the next song, could (and should) have been at the beginning of the damn song, but anyway lets move to 'Mental Paralysis' (in more ways than one if its followed by another filler).
Now this is a  beast of a track at nearly 18 minutes, starts with this almost prog rock sound of guitar and keyboard, then the dark vocals come in and the song begins to move towards some quite epic almost symphonic doom as it goes on some stunning backing vocals are added and then it all comes to a close with some simple and atmospheric piano.

Next track, yep you guessed it: Filler, i can see a pattern here this is a four track album divided into 8 parts!
So to 'Hemiparesis Of The Soul' another slow and quite symphonic intro with great clean vocal, its when the dark vocals come in that this song gets heavy and nasty, well for a while we then gets some quite jazzy basswork and drums in the middle and a mix of styles and samples at the end.

The last 2; 'Pain' (yep filler come intro) and 'Undone' really are an odd way to end, just very very quiet piano and a near whispered vocal.

Rating 8/10
For Fans Of: Sorrows Path, My Dying Bride, Anathema, De Profundis