I was sorting through my music the other day and was surprised to come across a cassette release of this band’s debut album, now the best part of 20 years old: I hadn’t realized that I had been aware of them for so long. This is their first album for five years, and they are now down to being just a trio with guests, which in many ways is somewhat surprising given that the rhythm section has been outsourced as it were. But, it has to be said that in many ways this feels much more like a solo album than it does a band release. There are times when the guitar wails poignantly, and there are times when Jerzy even dares a riff, but this appears to be very much the album of keyboard player Krzysztof Malec. There are a couple of long instrumental numbers on here, as well as long instrumental passages, which in itself is rather surprising given that Katarzyna Sobkowicz-Malec has such a wonderful voice.
A friend of mine asked to borrow this album but soon returned it with the comment that it was just too boring and single-natured for him, and while I may not necessarily agree with the statement I fully understand where he is coming from. An issue I have with some extreme metal bands is that they forget the importance of contrast, so tend to not have enough lightness to emphasis the heaviness and here the reverse is true. The album is crying out for some crunching guitars and more dynamic solos, as otherwise it is running the risk of falling into the background. That is not to say that this is a bad album, not at all, but where Jerzy throws in the Gary Chandler-style leads it demonstrates just how good this could really be. Solid as opposed to spectacular.
