Though best known for their magnificent but obscure 1988 album ???? ?????, the Soviet band ??????'s earlier recordings show them in transition as they adopted a heavier sound and moved away from the prog-rock covers of classical pieces on their first self-titled recording. Amid the decline in popularity of classical music and the increasing influence of Western rock ushered in by the opening of the Soviet Union through Gorbachev's glasnost reforms, ?????? set aside the classical covers in favor of highly technical, melodic hard rock and power metal compositions. Owing to their original release on reel-to-reel tape, the band's two EP-length recordings from 1987, ???????? ("Detective") and ?????? ??? ("Listen to Rock"), were practically lost until their release on CD earlier this year by the Russian label GS Productions. Though classically trained and folk-influenced, ?????? exhibited an intuitive understanding of heavy music. Featuring tempestuous riffing, incisive lead guitars, ornamental keyboard and organ, and commanding vocal performances, ???????? and ?????? ??? represent some of the best Soviet hard rock of the era. Unlike many virtuosic, classically trained musicians whose embrace of rock and heavy metal appears ostentatious and pretentious, ?????? did not use rock as a mere vessel to showcase their sophistication and skill. Instead, they channeled their talent and passion into music that was simultaneously aggressive, erudite, and emotive. There is a poetic valence to ??????'s lyrics. Even a song like "Listen to Rock," which extols the virtues of rock music, contains lines like "The thunderous ether is shaking the world! The stars look doomed from above, Along the warpath in a world of silence an evil shadow wanders fiercely." Though perhaps more cerebral than most Western power metal bands, ??????'s spirted composition and performance-free of the corporate metal trappings that saturated the international scene-sharpened the edge of the band's unique sound. This LP compiles, for the first time on vinyl, all of the tracks from the 1987 tapes, as well as a bonus track taken from the four-way split 7" released in 1990-the last track ?????? released before breaking up. Also, because the original tapes had no artwork, this LP features a new layout with original artwork by the Swiss painter Pascal Fessler. - J. Campbell
