Russian band Revelations of Rain is one of the few bands out there I feel acute ambivalence towards; I love their 2010 _Emanation of Hatred_ opus, while I can't stand their debut album from 2007. Surely they have evolved and matured and started to leave their own singular mark upon their recordings, but now, with their newest effort, they seem as if they have taken a couple of steps back toward their uninspired past by offering this lukewarm, safe, unadventurous and too-familiar-for-its-own-good little affair, _Deceptive Virtue_. Unlike the original and beautiful cover art, the music itself is something that could have easily been featured on the band's inconsequential first album, with those sweet, pedestrian melodies, long guitar and keyboard strokes, some really mild string chugging, a very pale-sounding drum set and benign romanticism with a lot of tremolo-heavy guitar solos.
The music in itself, in case you haven't heard the same routine a thousand times before, and only then, is pretty in its own uninteresting way, mildly tragic (tragedy of the soap opera kind, that is) and by no means harmful, nor offensive, nor inspiring, nor nothing else, really.
I wish to see this band evolve and transcend their current banality, at least in the same manner they showcased progressing from their truly unimpressive debut album to their not-bad-at-all third recording.
It seems as if the band have either become lazy, sloppy or both since 2010, and while being one of the longest standing bands and a forerunner for the current wave of the Russian doom/death metal boom, it is probably the least interesting of the lot, as of now. I've heard better both from Revelations of Rain and from its many, many peers.
For some really good Russian atmospheric doom/death metal, listen to Shallow Rivers instead.