Potonja

One of the veterans in Serbian black metal scene that a few people hold in high regard, while many people don't, is the band Bethor. One like myself would wonder why that may be the case, so for that occasion and my sheer morbid curiosity, I decided to dive in the deep tracts of hell and see what their infamous second full-length "Potonja" from 2006 has to offer. It is very unlikely to come across the original release of this album on any digital platform other than their Bandcamp page with a different cover art and some songs having different titles.

If the original god-awful cover art wasn't the red flag from the get-go, then you're in for a real treat. The album starts with a very long distorted and volcanic sounding intro, which was probably meant to hype the listener but would most likely kill you with extreme boredom. After that, we're greeted with the title track "Potonja", and from here on I begin regretting every second of my life. A lot of songs sound way too similar, due to having very similar sounding riffs, overdone unintelligible screams and a very annoying bending guitar lead that repeats itself way too many times in the first three tracks, even in the cover of Bathory's "Equimanthorn", which for some reason still has the intro that was taken from the original song. One thing that really grinds my ears besides the repetitive riffs and the guitar leads is the drums that sound way too loud in the mix, especially on the song "Daku iad" where it's definitely programmed. As a cherry on the top, we also have "demonic" low pitch shifted vocals on "Equimanthorn", "Upon the hour of noon" and "Daku iad", which sound way too overdone and dull. Another interesting thing I want to point out is the track "Clangui de blasphemia", where the main riff is obviously looped, which you can tell by the small pause when the riff is played repeatedly. Luckily the torture ends with the outro "Sabai Infernum" that's basically the same thing as the album intro. This album is indeed badly produced with a very raw sound but not in the sense of creating an actual atmosphere or genuine feeling with that primitive rawness, to which I have to add that bad production and sloppy riffs aren't a good excuse for trying to sound "kvlt". Even without the cover of Bathory's "Equimanthorn" and Beherit's "Fish", I assume that the two bands served as big influences for Bethor's music, but that still doesn't save it from sounding horrible.

Some people in the Serbian metal community said that this is by far "one of the most aggressive and most extreme Serbian black metal albums ever made", which confuses me in every way to the point where I question what do they find amusing about this album if not musical torture. I can understand that some people consider this a "guilty pleasure" but I don't know how anyone in the underground scene can consider this a cult classic album. I almost gave up on this album halfway through, because I was not impressed at all with anything "Potonja" had to offer. The horrible cover art was one of the main reasons why I avoided this album, but the music is the prime example why you should probably avoid it too, unless you are really that curious to hear it.