Review by TheOneNeverSeen on February 3, 2024.

After the raw, brutal yet hilarious "Анкерный болт Сотоны", Бездна Анального Угнетения pleased us with another excellent album – "Хроники последних дней". Just like the band's previous work, this album was almost solely written by Alexey Romanovsky, or "Анальный Каратель", which only emphasizes its positive qualities.

The album's melodies are great as always. Not a single song feels too long or too short, while the overall songwriting is brilliant. The intro and main riffs, verses, choruses, outros – everything is just impeccable. The intro riff of "Бабушка вернулась из ада", for example, is now among my favorite metalcore riffs of all time (even though the band's genre is classified as melodic death metal on EM, I feel like their style is closer to metalcore). Alexey's growls, despite not being the most compelling ones in the universe, are pleasing and combine perfectly with his melodic singing (also, they are relatively easy to sing along to without harming your throat!). Anastasia's vocals fit the album perfectly, especially on "Свой собственный сын". The drumming is energetic and not too uniform. The use of keyboards and orchestra elements is very effective and not too frequent, making the songs when they are used stand out from the rest of the album.

Constistency-wise, the album is incredible. I wouldn't say every single song is perfect, but the band tried their best to compose a very diverse material. Shorter bangers ("Ректальные роботы Яндекса", "Бифидобактерии объявили войну") adjoin longer songs with epic progression ("Свой собственный сын", "Шаурма пожирает людей") and a romantic ballad "Романтическая песня". The best song on the album is undoubtedly "Голос овощей". The killer main riff, immensely catchy chorus, the epic and even... tragic? piano interlude combined with genius lyrics (I doubt you know many songs about vegetables conquering the world) and awesome melodic vocals, diluted with extreme ones make this song a top-tier metalcore song. I don't even like metalcore that much, yet I find the melodies of this album outstanding. So, if you dislike the more renowned metalcore bands (like I do), you may want to check "Хроники последних дней" out.

The only thing worth of criticism on this album is the re-recorded songs, previously released on "Анкерный болт Сотоны" ("Котята", "Шишки-телепаты", "Поезд-убийца"). Personally, I find the new versions weaker than the originals. The "rawer" sound of the band's first album fits them way more, in my opinion, while the new vocals are less impressive. I would say those three songs are unnecessary and I skip them whenever I listen to this album.

Finally, I would like to note the hilarious lyrics of the album. I've already mentioned the ones of "Голос овощей", but the lyrics of the rest of the songs are also pretty cool. I cannot name a band besides SOAD that had funnier lyrics than this album (it has songs about war against bifidobacteria, reincarnating a grandma and a kebab devouring people, just to name a few) So, if you listen to the album, you MUST read the translation of the lyrics. Seriously, you won't regret it.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10