Kiedy duch wojny nade mną powstanie

This is pagan ambient music performed almost solely on keyboards. Occasionally the music is spiced up with timpani sounds, clean guitar and some nature sounds but these are used sparsely. There are two vocalists: mainman Wojnar who does the clean vocals and Aranath who’s responsible for the black metal vocals. This is good, since it brings variation to the music and makes the shift between moods more dramatic. The album starts off very promisingly: the first part of “Narodziny (Prolog)” where the vocalists take turns at screaming “Wojna! Nienawiść! Śmierć! Ogień! Duma i krew! Wojna!!!” sounds really good. The rest of the track isn’t bad either but then some negative aspects start to appear.

The main downfall on this album is the keyboard sound itself. It sounds cheap and a bit feeble somehow and fails to conjure up the necessary majestic atmosphere this kind of music needs. No matter what sounds or effects are used, I always feel like the keyboard sound hinders the music from fully living up to its potential. Another problem is that the music gets pretty boring at times. There’s too much repetition of certain parts and at other times I find it hard to keep focused because I feel like not enough is happening in the music and some tracks are clearly too long for their own good. “Wspomnienie z Głębi Lasu” is a very subdued and sad track that suffers maybe the most from the cheap keyboard sound. It has some nice simultaneous vocal lines from Wojnar and Aranath but ultimately makes me almost fall asleep.

I’m reviewing the CD re-release of this demo and to my annoyance there are only two track points on the CD (one for the A-side of the tape and one for the B-side). I think it’s very annoying that the tracks haven’t been separated properly because it’s sometimes hard to figure out when one track ends and the next starts. Thankfully the lyrics are enclosed, so if you follow them you’ll know which track is playing.

OK, enough about the shortcomings of this release now. As I said, the first track is good. Also “Kiedy Na Wojnę Czas Nam Wyruszyć” is a nice tune that gives me a “Following the Voice of Blood” type of feeling. That’s because the beginning of the track resembles the intro on said album. “Za Wieki Minione” makes good use of both vocalists. “Lament Bogów” is a nice instrumental, pretty simple but it works and doesn’t bore me. “Pożegnanie Słońca (Epilog)” is a great finale: a very sad mood throughout the song and some nice clean guitar. Both narrating and choir vocals are used here and they work really well. Sadly this song is the shortest one.

If you already like e.g. early Mortiis, Burzum’s keyboard albums and Vinterriket’s ambient stuff this is worth checking out. However, having already reviewed the brilliant “Z Najgłębszych Borów Pieśni Wam Niosę” release, I know that Wojnar is capable of better stuff than this.