Apostate- Trapped In A Sleep

Apostate is a death/doom metal band from the Ukraine. The band formed in 1993, they released a demo in 1995 and an ep in 1997 and had since been inactive. Thirteen years later Trapped In A Sleep, the bands first full-length was released. "Filling the Void" features lyrics that state "hell will merge with heaven" and this line defines the sound Apostate creates quite well, at times beautiful synths merge with crushing riffs and melodies come and go and it all happens in a very cohesive manner.

All the tracks aside from the intro and the closer go well over seven minutes a piece in length, the album features seven tracks and clocks in at just over fifty minutes. The band manages to make these lengthy songs breeze by with very little dragging. With tracks of this length many bands would be digging themselves in a hole, but Apostate handles the responsibility of keeping the listener's attention and most of the feelings they want to come across the listener flourish.

The moments where Apostate let their doom side shine prove to be the most effective. When the band slows things down they obtain an atmosphere that makes this a very enjoyable listen, but unfortunately they don't create these moments often enough to make this album amazing. The band is most certainly pumping out music that is far above average but with this album they haven't reached their full potential. The solos on the album are few and far between but when they do pop up they sound great. The riffs featured are very memorable and catchy but at times the band does seem to repeat them a bit longer than necessary.

Kozub shows that he has chops in both harsh and clean vocals on Trapped In A Sleep. On the title track his clean vocals fit the music perfectly and it adds a great deal to the song. There is a good balance between the clean and harsh vocals throughout the album. The harsh bellow that Kozub delivers has a distinct sound. It isn't quite a growl but instead a very deep yell. Even though the vocalist doesn't leave his comfort zone often it doesn't effect the sound much because he is superb at his style of preference.

Overall Apostate haven't quite created their masterpiece with this release but they definitely show they may have the ability to in the future. They aren't lacking in any area in particular but they also aren't executing certain things as well as they could be. Maybe with the next release Apostate will create a classic but until then this album is far better than many other releases in this genre and is by no means bad or even average. Recommended for those who are into the style and Trapped In A Sleep could also be an excellent gateway album for individuals looking to get into the death/doom genre.