Review by Vladimir on April 24, 2023.

The turn has finally come to talk about some Ukrainian black metal. The subject of today’s discussion isn’t just any band from Ukraine, but instead one of the veterans in the scene since 1995, the band Lucifugum. You may or may not have heard about this band, but they have always been prominent in the Ukrainian black metal scene while also being shrouded in mystery all throughout their existence. The two leading members Khlyst and Stabaath are still very much in charge of this beast for the last 28 years, and their misanthropic message just keeps spreading. Their eighteenth official full-length album Anaphora Lithu Actinism was released on November 11th, 2021 via their own label Propaganda.

The first track 'Парад пепла' is an unusual intro track but nevertheless sets up the tone, while the second track 'Эклиптика отделения' gives us exactly what we came for. From here on, it’s raw and misanthropic tremolo riffing all the way with mid-tempo and double-bass drumming, and on top of that, the hideous harsh singing vocals that sound as if he’s choking in his own blood. The strong point on this album would definitely be the vocals by Khlyst, deserving extra points for sounding demonic and rotten at the same time. As for the album as a whole, I must say that I am totally uncertain what to say about it since it leaves a lot to be desired. All the songs on this album are somewhat confusing and unusual since the song arrangements are random at best. Arrangements have unexpected breaks where guitars are constantly playing but the drums just suddenly stop and continue playing a few seconds later, which is a frequent feature in every song from start to finish. As for the riffs, they are pretty misanthropic and blasphemously sounding, but the overall riff placement or riff arrangement so to speak, is really mind-boggling from time to time and does seem more like every song on this album is nothing but a riff salad, rather than a well-structured song. Production-wise, the album sounds raw and cold with its rotten guitar tone and vocal mix.

The album doesn’t leave a really strong impression to be honest, mostly due to its execution which didn’t captivate as much as I wanted it to. I must admit that Lucifugum’s previous works were indeed much more enjoyable and engaging, aside from the hilarious music videos they put out, but this album really didn’t do anything for me other than make me question their songwriting skills. If you’re still asking yourself, should you check out this album or not, I’d say that you should approach it with very low expectations, but in case you are someone who is unfamiliar with Lucifugum and you would like to know more about their work, I suggest that you check out their earlier albums when Stabaath was still handling vocal duties.

Rating: 6 out of 10