It’s an OG thing that reviews should be subjective to the core and reflect solely author’s perspective. This has the drawback that the correlation between author’s and reader’s taste is the clue ingredient. The reader needs to recognise author’s sentiment and palate to know whether they share the standpoint and if they could draw some parallel conclusions for themselves.
The reach of the modern media narrowed down the customer base for this kind of reviewing. Who's got the time to learn all the quirks of the reviewers? This necessitated a new style of reviewing – which I would call the
German school, where everything beginning with canned food, cars and travel agencies ending up with movies and video games would be dissected into particles. Each particle would be assigned a weight and a score. Based on that a weighted average would be calculated, which should reflect the
objective value of the reviewed object. Voila, in theory should work for every “average Joe”. Alas there is always the problem of the subjective weight being attached to each particle, which ultimately makes the whole intricate process useless. After all no one remotely fits the definition of an “average Joe”.
Since I find the
German school barely applicable to music I’ll adhere to the OG style, which sadly requires some mostly non-musical exhibitionism. If you share the perspective you just might share the conclusion.
I find the Slavic mythos fascinating. They are rooted in the earth, literally in the soil. The one you feel walking barefoot in the forest, the specific structure and texture, a mixture of dead and living matter. They can be heard in the shrill of the crickets and trill of the frogs amidst the damp of a summer night. As you gaze over the campfire you get overwhelmed by the countless stars that have grabbed the sky from the sun. And only in that brief moment of confusion you might feel the Slavic yearning for the unreachable. The melancholy of the lonely, dim starts.
I’m also fascinated with theater. The art of pretend, of treating faraway realms and grotesque scenes as if they were some twisted part of our reality, where the most unlikely stories are touched and felt. Exaggerated acting makes both outlandish and visceral ideas unnervingly tangible.
This album is a combination of these two worlds. A theatrical presentation of Slavic mythos expressed as atmospheric black metal. The Slavic part dominates as it not only serves as the subject matter but also defines this branch of extreme metal. Whether it’s Drudkh, Walknut or Hate Forest the same elements always appear, the same kind of melancholy can be heard beyond the furious black metal extravaganza.
The theatrical performance is represented by vocals. They rage over the droning guitars. Atmospheric black metal often resorts to high pitched screaming, whereas this is a yell of a commander on a battlefield. Strong, foreboding and decided. You listen in awe and obey. A further part of the vocal performance are the recitations, which are crafted with theatrical standards and add a mystic flavour to the experience.
Intro sets the mood and invites you for a journey through the wild Slavic landscapes and obscure legends. Usually I don’t care for intros, stories, recitations and ambient parts as they more often than not feel forced and don’t serve much purpose. Here they are integrated gracefully within the music and one cannot exist without the other. Serene acoustic guitar is accompanied by flute and keyboards. They build up slowly to mix and blend with black metal tremolos and hypnotic drum beats. Emotions culminate as all these elements develop to a climax upon which stories of grief and solitude are told.
The sound has been cleaned up compared to the previous releases. The predecessors boast raw, muffled and dirty production characteristic for the early atmospheric black metal scene.
Zorzysta staje ocma got rid of the muffled sound and most of the dirt, while retaining black metal aesthetic. This new sound works well with the less wild and more atmospheric music.
If you don’t care for the Slavic stuff or don’t like theatrical performances, this probably won’t appeal to you as much. But come on, you’d love to sit in front of that campfire with the yearning only known to the dim, lonely stars as they cross the horizon of the endlessly cold sky…
PS
The physical album is a marvel to behold. Amazing golden artwork etched in the (artificial) leather cover of the beautifully illustrated digibook. The whole thing is incredibly robust. All lyrics are written down both in Polish and English and all copies are hand numbered. This could easily make a centrepiece of any collection.
