W imię nocy

It hadn’t started so badly, though, this second album from the Polish dark metal band Artrosis. Listening to the epic, massive opening track Ukryty Wymiar one could even, with a good deal of indulgence, have labelled them as the poor man’s Therion. It’s not really that quality-wise this act could, even for the shortest amount of time, hold a candle to the Swedish masters of dark/symphonic/bombastic metal or whatever you might call them. But still, the general mood of this song and (to a certain extent) its followers isn’t without sharing similarities with the works of Christofer Johnsson and co. in their most gloomy phase – around Deggial or so. You know, this kind of ominous, vaguely mystic oppressive atmosphere, the night where anything could spring up at any time. So far, so well; without mentioning the lead female voice is also remaining of Therion, which isn’t surprising as several Therion guest singers came from East-European countries, and some melodies are as well highly reminiscent of said act (check Hipnoza for instance).

But as often if atmosphere is something, songwriting is a completely different matter, and apparently the bandmembers felt so tired after having written the first tenth of their sophomore album they didn’t even bothered for finding a decent title for the two instrumental interludes (the second and eighth tracks). And while the listener keeps on being wrapped in the same disturbing atmosphere from the beginning to the end of the release, this one most of time only sums up to, precisely, that – an atmosphere. Most tracks are amorphous, shapeless, filled with keyboards and sound effects often showing little connection to the rest of the work – this noise at the beginning of the third track, a helicopter? A little further, croaking toads? Of course this was NOT meant to be a helicopter, this was NOT meant to be croaking toads (or otherwise this band is seriously fucked up), but it’s just what it sounds like – and everything else is equally approximate, and insipid.

What could be said about the musicians, then? If they’re indeed showing very little, it’s because they’ve got little to show anyway. With several tracks almost devoid of any guitar, there’s little virtuosity to be expected from the guitarists. The production is overall decent and the bass, when there’s one, can be heard, but it’s again very basic; as is the drumming more reminiscent of the average radio rock band than of a metal act. Eventually, filling the large void left by the other instruments with piano and keyboards both equally mellow you’re likely to come up with an album as exciting as an 80-years old Polish widow, and it’s indeed what it is. A pity, as the vocals were quite interesting. Pretty medium-pitched for female vocals, carrying a flavour of ancient, bizarre cults, venturing more than once up to Mid-Eastern sonorities (for instance, in Crazy – a title not really reflecting the global vibe of the track, but hey), they were definitely deserving a better treatment than the mediocre accompaniment they’ve been stuck onto.

However, amongst this mud of sleep-inducing nothingness two icebergs will still emerge: first the aforementioned opening track where the songwriters obviously put all of their ideas before diluting them in the whole rest of the album until they’ve lost all of their initial taste; then (but it could have been foretold) the fastest track here, W Górę, which for once at least offers a genuine song instead of trickling keyboard wandering. Not to say either of said tracks is an unforgettable piece of genius; but at their contact the listener still manages to keep his eyes open what, compared to the remaining music, is already a lot.

Highlights: Ukryty Wymiar, W Górę