Written by Tobias Djekic
Space of Variations return with Poisoned Art, an album that reads like a manifesto: audacious, meticulously crafted, and emotionally uncompromising. Twice crowned Ukraine’s best metal band at the BUMA awards, they refuse to rest on reputation. Instead, they expand their sonic territory, fusing metal’s visceral force with electronic textures, industrial grit, and cinematic dynamics. The result is an album that demands attention — not merely for its technical prowess but for its emotional intelligence and daring.
Poisoned Art is muscular and cinematic, brutal and tender in equal measure. The band balances razor-sharp riffs with shimmering synths, guttural roars with crystalline clean vocals, and frenetic percussion with spacious, trance-like interludes. Each track is a study in contrast: moments that ignite the pit are followed by passages that suspend you in a charged hush. The album’s production is polished without sterilizing the raw energy; every distortion, every electronic pulse, and every vocal inflection is placed with intent. This is a record that rewards repeated listens, revealing new textures and emotional layers each time.
Tribe
The album opens with Tribe, a fractured, distorted intro that immediately commands focus. The band alternates between English and Ukrainian, and those linguistic shifts add urgency and cultural weight. Dmytro’s vocal delivery slices through dense layers, and when the breakdown detonates it lands like a controlled explosion. The band then smartly pulls back, creating a drifting, hypnotic middle section that feels like floating in a charged fog. That calm is a strategic pause: the final build returns with volcanic force, transforming the song into an anthem that stakes the album’s claim.
Halo
Halo begins with a techno-tinged motif that misleads you into expecting a safe detour. Instead, the band slams into a technically precise, heavy breakdown that showcases their virtuosity. The track breathes between assaults, letting vocals and atmosphere register before electronics and high-gain, palm-muted guitars reassert themselves. The contrast between rave-like synths and crushing riffs is handled with finesse; the shifts amplify one another, producing moments that are both mosh-ready and strangely transcendent.
Mayday
Mayday continues the album’s signature blend of distortion and layered vocals. Growled passages and clean refrains are deliberately spaced, giving Dmytro room to deliver lines with gravitas. Instrumentally the song opts for a more stripped-back, deliberate approach — less clutter, more impact. That restraint makes the heavy moments hit harder. The track reads like a call to arms: concise, focused, and emotionally direct, with a chorus that lingers long after the last note.
Parallel Realities
A softer, slower opening gives Parallel Realities a reflective air. Here the clearer vocal lines take centre stage, and the band reverses their usual dynamic: where they often open hard and soften, this one opens gentle and builds. The restraint pays off; when the heavier elements arrive, they land with greater force. The transitions are seamless, almost bleeding into one another, and the song’s deliberation demonstrates the band’s command of pacing and tension. It’s a masterclass in how to make quiet moments feel consequential.
Doppelgänger
Doppelgänger snaps back into aggression with staccato riffs and rapid-fire rhythmic strikes. Vocals and instruments duel and dovetail, allowing listeners to isolate and savor individual parts. Electronic chords are woven throughout, giving the track a rave-ready undercurrent that complements the metal backbone. As the song progresses the electronics step forward, proving they’re not a gimmick but an integral voice in the band’s palette. The result is a hybrid that feels inevitable rather than forced.
Godlike
Godlike tightens the blend further. Clean passages segue into brutal riffs; vocals slice with intent and then descend into guttural fury. The song builds quietly into a midsection that lands like a punch, then retreats only partially, leaving a raw, jagged edge. At its apex the band briefly returns to a more tranquil register before yanking the rug out and finishing with a visceral, uncompromising flourish. The track’s dynamic architecture is both theatrical and visceral, a highlight of the album’s narrative arc.
Ghost Town
An industrial-electronic intro opens Ghost Town, and once the floodgates open the track escalates relentlessly. The band engineers a dramatic pullback into a cleaner chorus, then reintroduces the heavy guitar as a guiding blade that drives the song forward. The guitar motif becomes a hook in its own right — memorable, repeatable, and destined to be learned by aspiring players. The track balances aggression and catchiness in a way that feels both primal and modern, a testament to the band’s songwriting maturity.
Coldheaven
Coldheaven is one of the album’s most experimental moments. Fragmented vocal samples and glitchy textures create an unsettling, vintage-video atmosphere before the band crashes in. The arrangement gives each member space to shine: drum fills snap, a hip-hop-inflected vocal delivery surfaces, and silence is used as a dramatic device. When the band returns, they tidy the chaos into a guttural, explosive payoff. The song feels like a deliberate experiment that proves the band can stretch without losing focus.
Back To Dirt
Back To Dirt returns to the album’s familiar territory with an electronic opening and crystalline vocal lines. The band accelerates into a relentless, high-energy assault where tiny breaks of one to two seconds are enough to reset the listener’s bearings. Miss one cue and you’ll be swept away. The middle’s calmer moment is dwarfed by the surrounding intensity; the track is a full-throttle ride that showcases the band’s ability to sustain momentum without sacrificing nuance.
Snake Skin
If you love electronic music, Snake Skin is the track to show friends. It’s a full-on light-show in audio form: pulsing synths, relentless beats, and metal’s raw power fused into a single, unrelenting groove. The breakdown invites communal participation — a pit-ready moment where electronics and metal collide. This song feels like the album’s manifesto of genre fusion: defiant, celebratory, and unapologetically loud. It’s the moment the record stops asking permission and starts issuing commands.
Lies
Lies slows the pace and leans into emotional territory. The band has already proven their hybrid approach; here they take time to breathe and to let feeling lead. The track is tender and then abruptly violent, trading a soft, heart-on-sleeve chorus for a sudden metalcore scream that shocks and then makes sense on repeat listens. The contrast is deliberate: the build is there, and when it detonates, you’ll find yourself shouting along. It’s one of the album’s most affecting moments, where vulnerability and aggression coexist.
Echo
The album closes with Echo, a short, elegant send-off. It’s a tidy, atmospheric farewell that reframes the journey you’ve just taken. There are no standout fireworks here — instead the track offers a reflective coda that lingers. After the album’s many peaks and troughs, Echo is the memory that remains: a quiet afterimage of the intensity that preceded it.
Conclusion
Poisoned Art is a daring, accomplished record from a band at the top of their craft. Space of Variations have taken risks and turned them into strengths: electronics and metal don’t just coexist here, they amplify one another. The album is cinematic and immediate, brutal and beautiful, and it stakes a claim for the band as innovators rather than imitators. This is the kind of record that will make you want to see them live and, when you do, to hear this material front and centre rather than a greatest-hits setlist.
They have not only defended their crown — they’ve expanded the kingdom. Poisoned Art is an album to remember, to replay, and to flaunt. It’s proof that a band can evolve without losing its core identity, and that experimentation, when done with conviction and craft, can produce something both thrilling and timeless.
Rating: 9/10
