The eclectic metal peddlers at Domestic Genocide are pleased to reveal Ruines, the debut from one-man post-rock/post-black metal/shoegaze project, thehappymask.
Hailing from Russia, thehappymask is dark, mysterious and shrouded in monochromatic secrecy. The gentleman behind the willful anonymity and stylistic runaround can be unearthed on at least one domestic social network, but even there he hides behind the moniker of “Constantine Horizon.” Self-portraits, visual or textual, do little to increase our database of objective information. Silhouettes and saturated colors hide various faces. Obscurity offers broad appeal, in several senses.
In speaking of his musical development, Constantine shows nothing of the purposeful rhetoric that drives the local economy. Translated from Russian, his self-declaration instead reads: “Basically speaking, this is my own, modest musical project. It came into being very spontaneously at the start of last summer, in a town that doesn’t exist. This is music written under the influence of my private emotions and aspirations, but it’s full of hope that the material will improve.”
The only other thing these shoegazing instrumentals offer in terms of specificity is a small poem, accredited to an anonymous author and written to an unnamed female addressee. Constantine has uploaded it to one of his networking pages. Turned into English prose, it asks a reader to save “magical beauty” from the “illusion of those who say you’re eternal or that happiness lasts forever.” The same text also warns its addressee that perfection is an unobtainable state.
Ruines Track Listing:
1. Heavy Rain
2. Ruines
3. Fading Beauty
4. Dead Flowers
5. Old Broken Bridge
6. Towards The Setting Sun
7. As Dusk Falls
8. Asleep
Ruines will be released via Domestic Genocide Records March 19, 2013.
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