Fetish

Polish gothic metallers Artrosis came to success quickly within their home country's alternative music scenes, however recognition from mainstream institutions of music criticism is often rare within their sub-genre of metal music. However, that changed with the release of Fetish, the band's fourth studio album (there are some caveats in that number) in 2001, for which they were nominated for Best Heavy Metal Album at that year's Frederyk Award (the Polish equivalent to the American Grammy Awards). From a fan's perspective, the fact that Fetish was the first and only Artrosis album to receive a nomination at all feels almost incorrect, like they chose the wrong release. Not because Fetish is bad, I quite enjoy it, but it doesn't quite represent what I think are the band's best attributes.

Fetish marks a pretty big paradigm shift in the band's sound: While their third album Pośród kwiatów i cieni (1999) toyed with some more synthy or electronic ideas, Fetish jumps headfirst into a cold unfeeling world of electronic beats and industrial sounds. There are still hints of the band's gothic, almost symphonic sounds, but they are far less present than on previous outings. The change of style is especially drastic since Artrosis had spent much of 2000 re-recording their first two albums to be released under what was then their new record label Metal Mind Productions in the lead up to this album's release.

It's a much less heavy record and has very different priorities sound-wise. The band seems much more concerned with building a world and a feeling than they are with writing songs that can be played to a live crowd. Not saying that the tracks aren’t catchy -- they certainly are, but they don’t have the same kinesis or flow when compared to the band’s earlier work. It's definitely not the kind of album that would play well to a Metalmania audience, the same way that more extreme acts would, or even Artrosis’ earlier works would. Instead Fetish feels more like an extension of the Polish goth and industrial scene, and the metal-ness of the release is almost incidental, as if the band’s status as a metal band is merely dependent on who the guitarist is. In the later parts of the album, some more familiar sounds come into play, those being very lush and romantic strings and keyboard sounds that bridge the gap between their older sound, and the sound that the band would focus on in the future. However, despite these slight returns to form, the soundscape is still one that feels ominous and distant, and ultimately the band does not deviate from the artistic vision of the album.

The songs on Fetish are typically low-energy, rather sparse sounding. A large bulk of the sound is made up of heavily filtered or fully synthetic percussion, eerie keyboards, and creaky and robotic programming, mixed with clean electric guitar. The combination of the organic and electronic instrumental creates a rather off-kilter, almost unsettling energy that pervades the entire run time. Being so committed to this distant and cold sound, the band runs the risk of having the album sound a bit same-y. In general, the band manages to escape this problem, but since Fetish (like much of their back catalogue) plays out as one continuous gesamtwerk, there are some parts where one song might be difficult to distinguish from another (in my opinion, the opening three songs are most guilty of this, despite all of them being rather good tracks).

Artrosis were not much of a vocally-driven band -- not until later in their career, anyway. That’s not to say that the vocals don’t matter, or that their singer is in anyway sub-par, in fact I think Medeah is a rather effective singer. Not only does she have a nice voice, but she has a quite diverse range, from high-compression distorted singing to angelic highs, she also has a great knack for blending and harmonizing with herself, and at times uses her voice as just another instrument in the band’s arsenal. On Fetish she keeps it either low and subdued, or leans into grittier talk-singing, with only some passages of full-power chest singing. She sounds good, but again, she’s not in it a whole lot. Despite not being a huge part of the band’s sound in terms of airtime or seconds, she’s always been able to stand out, and thus her absence is usually never felt. But in this instance, I find the lack of vocal presence to be somewhat of a disservice to the album. Without much vocal, “Samuel” feels incredibly undeserving of its six-and-a-half minute run time despite having some interesting musical ideas, and a song like “The Poisoned” that doesn’t have much of a chorus, just a musical climax, feels incomplete.

The English language version of the record closes on a cover of “Mur” by Polish goth rock icons Pornografia, and a duology of instrumental tracks “Suita”, and “0100101110” (at least as it is titled in the English version). None of them truly elevate the listening experience, but are a nice inclusion to the album none the less... Right, I would be lying if I said my reluctance to heap insurmountably high praise onto Fetish wasn't influenced at least a little by the fact that the version I have been most exposed to is the English version, which only adds a layer of awkward onto my listening experience. Not only does it live in a musical world that I'm not the biggest fan of (I tend to be wary of electronic-based music), and not only does it have an off-putting tone, but all but two songs (the aforementioned cover) "Mur", and standard edition album closer "Ostatni raz" are translated into a language that the singer is obviously uncomfortable in. I find the delivery to be a bit distracting, and detracts from the listening experience. No doubt, the decision-makers at the Frederyk Awards didn't have to put up with any clumsy English when deciding to nominate Fetish for an award.

All of this to say that I in fact do like this album, despite maybe not thinking that it could be a contender for Best Heavy Metal Album of the Year in any year, Artrosis still proves that they are top notch songwriters and have a keen eye (or ear) for detail. The band’s strengths have always been their atmospheric qualities, and their knack for writing strong hooks, and Fetish is no exception. Even if this isn't an album that I return to all that often, it's still worth a listen, for no other reason than it's an interesting album to sit with and digest. Though listening to this album might require some patience, it is largely a rewarding listening experience.