Svet Kant – Three Faces Review

For this review I have stayed on Irish soil and reviewed one of the most discussed bands of our scene, a band who doesn’t let themselves to be caged in one particular genre – Svet Kant. In order to truly understand how the music reached a high level and boundaries were broken, I joined D Metal Galaxy to chat with Santiago, the man behind the band. In this interview I learned about the album and the theme as well as how the videos & artwork were shaped to bring the concept alive.

Below I will discuss the theme, the music, song structure, videos, artwork and in the end I will summarize everything.

Theme

The theme of the album is centered around Japanese folklore and three faces. The three faces represent the idea that each person has three faces: one face he shows to the world, another for close relatives & friends and the last face is not shown to anyone, it is basically who you truly are.

I love this core theme as it is a very deep and philosophical one. It blends very well with their music style which is very complex and thoughtful. With thoughtful I mean that every part of their music is put with a lot of thought of how to not be caged into one genre and go every time a different musical direction and this particular mindset can be applied to the core theme.

“THREE FACES EXPLORES AN INTERESTING SIDE OF SOCIOLOGY…“

Music

Listening to this album was quite surprising. For a couple of times I had to recheck if this is Svet Kant I am listening to. The reason for this is the different sound I was hearing, it was much calmer and reminded me of pagan music in contrast to the other albums which are leaning more into death metal. It proves definitely that Svet Kant managed again an unique listening experience.

Music wise the album starts much more calmer and melodic then it builds up. Yet every song seamlessly flows into the next one, giving it a mature and sophisticated touch. As a result, the album had finished before I knew it.

“WITH THREE FACES BOUNDARIES ARE DEFIED AGAIN WHILE A NEW MUSICAL DIRECTION IS EXPLORED“

Song Structure

The album is based around a short-long-short song length, like a symmetry. This perfectly references the core theme. What’s more each song is dedicated to “one face”. This is the reason why there are only 3 songs on the album.

I think it is a brilliant strategy as it integrates the core theme into the song itself, each face is represented in a separate song, explaining one third of the theme basically. As I have mentioned before the album is quite short, however taking this into consideration it makes perfectly sense.

“EACH SONG PERFECTLY UNFOLDS 1/3 OF THE THEME“

Videos

Also, videowise Svet Kant has done something entirely different. Closeups and a sense of mystery were used. In all the videos the faces of the band members are left out making it hard to recognise who is who. I felt intrigued by this and the hidden details that were included sucked me even more into the album.

Another reason why I love the close ups is the very fact that it represents Svet Kant’s core identity. They are the band who defies boundaries, experiment and do something different than anyone else. Making videos that stand out of the norm showcases their experimental soul.

I agree that it might be at first a bit odd to not display any faces, despite the core theme being centered about this, but if you think for a while it makes perfect sense. It is all about representation of how others perceive you, the world or themselves. Due to a distorted video without any clarity on who is who, makes you think which face of the core is being explored here.

“THREE FACES SHOWCASES SVET KANT’S CORE IDENTITY“

Artwork

The artwork is quite an odd one. It includes Japanese elements despite the fact that Svet Kant has no ties to Japan whatsoever. As a result, I was very drawn into this album due to my curiosity of how this artwork came to be. In my opinion the yellow background is a great choice as it nicely puts the black colors into the foreground and attracts the eye. 

Regarding the Japanese element, well it perfectly represents the core theme as you see three faces in symmetry looking at you. This strengthens again the maturity and sophistication of the album as it is so coherent with the theme.

“THE ARTWORK OF THREE FACES DEFINTELY EMBODIES THE CORE THEME“

Summary

For its album Svet Kant had chosen a very daring, unusual, but brilliant core theme to represent – three faces. Each aspect of the album: song structure, videos, artwork, all are visualizing this core theme and at the same time enhances it. As a result, everything is a puzzle piece which fits perfectly together. For this particular reason, Three Faces is Svet Kant’s most sophisticated and most mature album, which definitely is a recommendation to listen to for those who are into experimental music.

“THREE FACES IS THE MOST MATURE AND SOPHISCATED ALBUM OF SVET KANT“
MAIr