Demo II

So here comes the second part of the reviews for the two demos by Polish black metal machine Poroniec. Their first effort really impressed me, and the second one even more so. This time we got 25 minutes of blasting and relentless black metal madness with some death metal elements woven into the whole mix. This is some really crushing stuff and leaves me stunned and wondering how a demo by a more or less unknown project can deliver such a beast.

The crawling bleakness and the haunting harmonies building the backbone to the heavy instrumentation are a very important factor to the overall picture that is painted on this record. While the tempo is kept in mid-tempo most of the time there are some very slow and intense but also a few faster sections. The songwriting is great with some well-placed tempo changes giving the whole album a great flow. While there are some impressive solo pieces the song structures are never too complicated making this album quite easy to enjoy from the first moment on. The lead guitars are mainly used to create slightly disturbing soundscapes and not for some technical wankery.

There are a lot of jarring, vicious sounding guitars, drenched in a raw and shrill tone, machine gun tight drums and some truly arid and fierce sounding vocals, all making the three tracks sound oppressively harsh and aggressive. There’s some great, chaotic and cacophonous moments where the music takes a markedly more frenzied turn, providing yet more venom and viciousness to the already bleak picture. Dismal and desperate, moody and bleak - despite all its rawness and primitive origin this is black metal with a captivating character that’s enthralling, and a rhythm section that eschew blasting and battering, creating a nuanced and compelling momentum for all the sinister and penetrating, yet stunningly layered guitar work and the vicious, roaring vocals.

With the songwriting being spot on, not too simple but not too cumbersome either, this release is just a feast for fans of pure and true black metal fun. The production values are even higher than on the first demo as far as I can judge, blowing most of their peers out of the water. Going for a more modern, yet powerful and organic sound this demo is an absolute blast. If the lads had put all songs of their two demos on one full length we would be talking about contender for album of the year. So if you are into heavy-hitting and really oppressive black metal go to their page and get these two EPs. You won’t be disappointed.