“It’s become a cliché around the halls of AMG that stoner doom is difficult to do badly, but even more difficult to do well. As a result, it tends to hang in the “difficult to review” window of 2.5-3.5. There’s also not a whole lot of energy from readers. Whether stoner-selection bias is responsible (munchies trump comments), or the genre itself fails to excite ordinary metal fans, the fact remains that anticipation around these releases is generally low.” Sleepytime tales.
“UKĆ is the brainchild of Łukasz ‘Icanraz’ Sarnacki, a Polish artist who has knocked around the local scene for a while. Billed as “black-prog from the heart,” I was impressed by some of the early singles, and the promo pit wasn’t exactly overflowing with goodness, so I grabbed Coming Out.” Out in the cold.
“Eternal Rot are new to me but they’ve been slowly honing a truly repulsive death-doom sounds since way back in 2013. With two albums (that are really more like EPs) to their credit, this English/Polish collective took great pains to create some of the wettest, more caustic sewage spew out there. Third platter Moribound keeps the putrid times going with grisly, grotesque sub-sub-basement level filth suitable for a mass grave or Super Fund site.” Stepping in a rotpile.
“AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö” is a time-honored tradition to showcase the most underground of the underground—the unsigned and unpromoted. This collective review treatment continues to exist to unite our writers in boot or bolster of the bands who remind us that, for better or worse, the metal underground exists as an important part of the global metal scene. The Rodeö rides on.” Poland invades YOU!
“I’d hazard a guess that few cultures are represented so completely across metal’s myriad sub-genres as Norse mythology. Even bands flung far from Scandinavia write on the subject, including in this instance the less distant Poland. While Midgards and world serpents more typically feature in black metal and its derivatives, Pandrador have returned in 2023 with a release steeped in Norse mythology but channeled through death metal.” Death and bravery (and glory).
“By my own admission, post-metal – especially where it crosses into sludge – is not my typical jam. So much is it not my jam that CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS on staff receive much hate for their love of sludge. But a favorable, if not effusive, word from the elusive but expressive Kronos is all I need to take a band seriously, and so it was with Poland’s Entropia.” Filthy recommendations.
“71TonMan is roughly equal to ten adult tyrannosaurus rex; seven minke whales; moving to my own favored species, two megalodons; or one Leopard 2 tank, of the type recently pledged by Poland, Germany and others to Ukraine. And this seems appropriate, as a sizeable, if ponderous, battle tank is a pretty good comparator for this doom/sludge outfit.” Weights and pleasures.
In anticipation of their upcoming album, here’s a helpful primer on prog-metal stalwarts, Riverside (they live in a van down by the river).
“There’s electronic metal, and then there’s this Vengeur record. Superficially similar, Herman ‘Vengeur’ Pańkow’s solo project could hardly have less in common with that subgenre. ‘Witch house,’ ‘dissolved genres,’ and ‘avant-garde’ are just some of their Bandcamp tags. The fact that this is on I, Voidhanger should also give fair warning of its idiosyncrasy. Nothing, however, could prepare me for what would come after I pressed play on Par Feu et Par Flammes.” Beat of the electro-heart.
It’s been too long since I’ve happened upon some neofolk. Grabbing those folk albums that aren’t all that cheery and reviewing them is one of the best parts of writing here, and some of my favorite discoveries have been neofolk—including all of my albums of the year to date, for that matter. So I was thrilled to discover Pustkowia, the third full-length release from Poland’s Anna Maria Olchawa, the sole member of the project Ols.” Ols lang syne.
