Review Summary: МАЯК, or Mayak in the western alphabet, meaning Lighthouse, is a fantastic screamo band from Moscow that highlights some of the best aspects of Russian screamo with a strong tinge of influence from Mediterranean bands of the last decade, e.g. Amanda W
I've been following МАЯК since around the time their self-titled debut and состояние птиц's (Bird's State Of Soul) second EP came out two summers ago, and I was just stunned at how much better the bands in the genre coming out of Russia had gotten since the hay-days of Mediterranean European screamo in the mid-00s, when Marschak and Optimus Prime were the only things really worth mentioning coming out of Russia, and Optimus Prime kind of sucked for a while anyway. This is all important in an explanation for my absolute adoration of this album. When МАЯК started out they were a really cool Eastern European sounding screamo band, but their peers on Sad Records all seemed a lot more interesting, and advanced in their songwriting, but something about МАЯК's vocals just really drew me in I guess.
МАЯК really stands out now though, like this might be my AOTY. The opening track Капитану печальных прогрессий gives such a poppy, melodic punch, like just good time punk vibes, and then you get into this dense, layered, piece of brilliance that just makes me really sappy and happy at the same time when I'm stoned that transitions into a more ephemeral, atmospheric sound towards the end, much like the eb and flow in and of depression which really makes sense with the album title. This is a band that went from being among a herd of great young Russian bands that straight up put out a short full-length that has a progressing theme from song to song, and that is just ballin. Seriously. Check this out. It is ill.
