“I recently heard from a coworker that lobster meat only has to contain about 2% actual lobster to be labeled as such. Often when you’re biting into a cheap lobster roll, you’re actually eating monkfish – a bottom dwelling creature that looks like a cross between a dog turd and a deep sea anglerfish that got run over by a dump truck. Why bring this up? Well, if Polish grindcore quartet F.A.M. are any indication, mediocre deathgrind albums work the same way.” Contents guaranteed to be fresh.
“Listening to Oniric Delusions this past week got me thinking about vanilla ice cream. It’s a dessert that’s not so much widely loved as universally accepted as a reliable standby to other, more complex dishes. Proper application of toppings however can transform this most mundane of treats into something special and unique. When I learned that Banisher hails from Poland and markets themselves as extreme death metal, I couldn’t help but raise my expectations at least a little.” Poland is for death lovers.
“Poland’s been the source of some great metal over the years. Behemoth probably comes to mind first, being that Nergal’s the master of controversy and the court room. But putting that aside, there’s Vader, Decapitated, Hate and Lux Occulta, who along with many others have been delivering the goods and then some. Somewhere in the throng, the talents of one-man, black metal or dark ambient artist, Fabian Filiks (Moloch) of Zørormr became a little obscured.” One does not simply hear all the bands in Poland.
“The brilliant melodies of Iron Maiden and Metallica opened the door to metal for a young Diabolus. But it was the timeless riffs, redline intensity, and searing speed of Reign in Blood that pushed me through it. In the back of my mind, the dragon of Reign in Blood’s speed is always being chased because of this. The viciousness of Slayer’s finest (half) hour complemented its speed, and even today it sounds an order of magnitude faster than your garden variety blast-happy tech-death typewriter-core band.” I hear typewriter-core is the new post-black.
“A lot can happen to people over time. Take me, for instance; my 20-year high school reunion is coming this year, and I can pretty much guarantee that very few people who don’t follow me on a daily basis are going to have a hard time believing that who I am and who I was are the same people. With plenty of tattoos and hair on my face (and little on my head), I know more than a few heads will turn. Wicher, the debut album from Polish pagan metal barbarians Sacrilegium, also turns twenty this year. Until now, it was the band’s only full-length output, given that the band disbanded in 2000.” So what name tag will these cats get at their reunion?
“AMG recently dropped this album by Poland’s Votum in my promo bin with a snarky remark about how I love “sadboy doom-prog.” Naturally, I denied it and retorted with a series of choice names, but when the time came to actually sit down and listen to :KTONIK:, Votum’s fourth full-length, I was forced to admit I did love the sadboy post-rock prog metal being laid down. Damn, him! Damn that AMG!
“I’ll be honest with you; the only reason I’m even passingly familiar with Entropia’s existence comes from their commendable decision to sample a few lines of dialogue from the excellent (and yes, very brutal) Christopher Nolan film, The Prestige. The late David Bowie’s tempered portrayal of an eccentric and misunderstood Nikola Tesla living out his days in a quasi-exile in Colorado Springs brings a wistful sort of conscience to the film’s dueling protagonists, and a story of such single-minded self-destruction couldn’t be more suited for a metal adaptation. That’s just low hanging fruit, metal bands, I’m doing your work for you here.” And we don’t get paid to do PR!
![Batushka – Litourgiya [Things You Might Have Missed 2015]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Batushka-Litourgiya-768x768.jpg)
“Still, even in 2015, when a mysterious black metal band crafts a record that mimics an Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy, it’s bound to raise some eyebrows. Especially when the songs are sung in Russian and the band members are Polish.” If that doesn’t pique the curiosity, you’re a person without curiosity to pique.
This post has been removed because it promoted Nazi or Nazi-adjacent metal bands or musicians. We apologize.
Poland’s Riverside should be no stranger to the dedicated reader of these Angry pages. After discovering the band’s Anno Domini High Definition in 2009, Riverside has sneakily become one of the staples of my playlist. I wasn’t completely enamored with Shrine of New Generation Slaves; but its chill, more reflective moments are the ones that I keep coming back to: “The Depth of Self Delusion,” yes, but especially, “We Got Used to Us,” which has a slow groove and a transcendent chorus. Still, SoNGS lacked the punch and progressive drive that ADHD—and the band’s earlier material—had, and landed far more in the territory of post-Marillion prog, without the brooding darkness into which late Gazpacho has wandered recently. SoNGS was, arguably, nothing more or less than a road sign, though, pointing towards 2015’s latest record: Love, Fear and the Time Machine.
