2002’s
I odpuść nam nasze winy was the turning point in Frontside’s career. After years of various stylistic experiments, the band eventually sank their teeth in metalcore with spectacular effects. The album charted high in Poland and won a prestigious Fryderyk award – equivalent to receiving a Grammy overseas – as well as led to a contract with Regain Records, but all of that aside, it was simply very aggressive, very focused and very enjoyable. However, it’s on the following record that Frontside crafted their
opus magnum.
Zmierzch bogów. Pierwszy krok do mentalnej rewolucji, released internationally as
Twilight of the Gods, saw the band doubling down on the heaviness and has since become a genre-defining classic in the country.
The album introduced Auman and Daron on vocals and guitar, respectively, and it was apparent from the get-go that recruiting them was nothing but beneficial. Although Astek and Simon were competent musicians and vastly stepped up their game on the previous record, their successors proved more than capable. Auman’s default vocal style at the time were mid-range shouts, which in his other band Totem were used nearly exclusively. Here however, he diversified his delivery with blistering high shrieks and deep growls that rank among the best-executed in the genre. Cleans are also sparsely used and despite some slip ups here and there, they work well thanks to the clarity and depth of Auman’s voice. Meanwhile, the combined forces of Demon, Daron and Nowak provide a load of banging grooves and sharp, melodeath riffs, with Daron being responsible for the few hard-hitting solos. It’s worth noting that the album spends much of its runtime on instrumental segments, which obviously works wonders for the pacing and, coupled with this style of metalcore, makes it feel somewhat like a cross between two other significant releases from the same year: Lamb of God’s
Ashes of the Wake and KSE’s classic
The End of Heartache. Speaking of the latter – one of the tracks here is titled “Przyjmij tę przysięgę”, which literally translates to “Take This Oath”. While this might have been a reference as Killswitch released their track (and album) five months earlier, the official English translation ended up being “Embrace This Promise”, likely to avoid confusion between the two.
The record doesn’t lack the crucial factor of success – memorability. The choruses in “Apokalipsa trwa” and “Symfonia odkupienia” stay in mind thanks to the headbanging energy of the former and the latter’s beautifully dramatic chorus built atop an epic, if repetitive, guitar riff. “Brzemię piekła” combines bouncy, increasingly growl-driven verses with massive, harmonized guitar leads in the chorus that’s also distinguished by the “megaphone” effect on clean vocals; a personal favourite of mine that doesn’t waste a second of its six-minute runtime. Then, there are “Przyjmij tę przysięgę” and “Naszym przeznaczeniem jest płonąć”, one of the band’s most popular songs. With beautifully performed clean passages, tasteful guitar work especially in the latter and climactic structures, these two form the emotional core of the record and showcase the band’s melodic sensibilities without sacrificing an ounce of aggression. There are only two departments in which
Zmierzch bogów falls short: a degree of repetitiveness and the lyrics being corny and incoherent at times.
Although, the fact that the phrase
verily, I say unto you appears like a watermark in every single song on the album regardless of the context, deserves nothing but appreciation.
