I am aware of a handful of (sometimes really interesting) acts from Kazakhstan, but I didn’t know Detention. However, apparently this project did release a first album in 2013, called Coma, via (mighty) No Remorse Records (British, but based in Gibraltar). But as said, this is my first acquaintance with Detention. It seems to be a project, a solo-outfit, by a guy called Yeldar Rakishev. Once again, he worked with Jack Control for taking care of mix and mastering (at the Enormous Door studio), and this time he was assisted by some session musicians again to finalise this sophomore album. Anton ‘Cyclone’ Brezhnev, who works / worked with e.g. Crystal Abyss or (also ‘mighty’) Artificum Nex, did perform the drum parts on Marginal, and the female voices were / are performed by nobody else but Lilita Arndt, whom you might know from her Embrace Of Hedera-project, or her assistance with Ukraine’s Moloch (!). Indeed, Yeldar seems to have gathered quite an impressive cast to assist him.
The Marginal-album consists of eight tracks, which clock almost forty minutes, and it gets released in a so-called ‘dvd-edition’, i.e. a ‘big box’. But that aside, it’s the aural side that counts.
Actually, this album brings which a cheap site or zine would label as ‘female-fronted Metal’. The correctness has to do with 1) this stuff being ‘Metal’, and 2) the vocals being done by a ‘female’ human being. So here we are: Detention perform Female Fronted Metal. You’re welcome…
No, skip the bullsh*t! What Detention bring is a modern sounding form of highly melodious and emotive Gothic-inspired Metal, based on the soft, almost ‘innocent’ voice of Lilita. She sort of carries the whole package by her warm voice, which might bring descriptions like ‘heavenly’, ‘catching’ or ‘breakable’ to mind. But it’s not of the ‘operatic’ or ‘classical skilled’ kind, her voice, and from time to time she misses the strength, unfortunately. I do not dislike her timbre, but after a while it becomes too flat, too superficial, and that’s sad.
The instrumental side id mainly focused on guitar-driven elements. Okay, the rhythm section is very important for sure. It’s like a driving force behind the scene, making sure the machine rolls on. But the guitar leads are what the instrumental part of this project carry. For sure it’s of a crafted kind, but I have to add ‘unfortunately’ once again. Reason is the goody-goody attitude (damn, where are the middle-finger in the ass or fist in the face of any god alike skills?) and the lack of balls. This album is a nice poppy effort, but I have been waiting for something that has not come (and I’m afraid it won’t come at all). Besides, it’s full of clichés, throughout the whole album, with feedback and manipulated vocals, a sound almost clinically sterile, some modernised, semi-progressive moments, and melodies oh so predictable and sweet. Not once this album truly thrills, but I have to say that total boredom would be too naughty too to add. So let’s skip the crap and go over to my personal, and totally subjective, conclusion: only for fans of, haha, Female Fronted Metal…