Postvorta

When I first listened to Quercus, I didn't know what to make of it. I still don't. This is a dreamy, surreal journey that sometimes even involves a cat. Yes, according to a band interview, Čudlik the cat is the guest vocalist that provides the meows toward the middle and end of Poles.

It would be easy to just point to this album and say “There is a cat on it”, but that is far from the only quirk. The album starts out really dreamy, with raspy growls following the music. The leads can be hypnotic. Midway through Poles things start to get especially interesting, with spacey acoustic sections and distant attempted operatic vocals. There always seems to be something to break the monotony, it could be subtle like a creeping acoustic line that catches the ear just for a moment, or as blatant as a cat meowing into the void. When I first heard the meows of Čudlik, I thought I had another application running, but they used his meows again toward the climax of Poles.

My main complaint about this album is that it sometimes meanders along and at times can get a little monotonous with not a lot going on. There are a lot of sparse sounding acoustic passages or riffs bereft of much thought. Even if there is something weird also going on (and often there is), there are times when this is a chore to listen to.

Still, this is a pretty decent funeral doom record to have playing in the background. The guest vocalists add a diverse range of flavor – from a cat, to German singing guy named Oliver, to ethereal female vocals courtesy of Pavla. And it definitely ends on a strong note with Prophets, Letters, Memories being a solid song with an especially ethereal doomy atmosphere. It reminds me of Skumring to a small degree because of Pavla's singing.