This, Genius Ultor’s second album, was recorded in a mouldy pre-war house, reeking of “complete humiliation and degradation”. The band then added their contribution of “necrophobic atmosphere and paranoid unease”. This seems to be natural territory for Polish blackened death metal bands, of which Genius Ultor are one. There’s no sense of what they’re trying to do. This grey hatred is simply inside them. “Nic Co Boskie Nie Jest Mi Obce”, which apparently means “I Consider Nothing That Is Divine Alien to Me”, is made of dark apocalyptic stuff. From the start there are swathes of raw-sounding black metal. The only pictures are of devastation and chaos. No holds are barred on this old school chaotic riot. Fire, fury and blasphemous mayhem continue seamlessly as “Koniec Wszystkiego Co Znany” (The End of Everything We Know) gets going. There’s a hint of Immortal in the fire. This twists and turns, without fail in a turbulent and thunderous way. A disconcerting moment of slow distortion upsets the pattern but rampant thrashing black metal now surfaces with “Zwycięstwo” raises the roof in anthemic style. “Zwycięstwo!” (Victory!) is the cry. I had the sense of being rammed into the ground. ”Kataryniarz” (Organ Grinder) is slower but grinding (appropriate to its title as I discovered when seeking help with the translation) and powerful like a lathe. This time there’s a dual vocal attack. Both voices are harsh of course. The old school flavour works well. This is death metal as it should be – there’s no concession to humanity. Each track has its own quality in spite of the constantly decadent atmosphere. “Pijany Krwią” (Drunk with Blood) suggests doom before descending into furious depths of despair. But renewed drum fire tells us that war is upon us. “Zło Pjrzenaśętsze” (Evil of the Holy One) is just withering, sneering, pungent nastiness. The album takes an odd turn to finish. “Krew Nie Woda” (Blood is Not water) is an acoustic track – blackened folk? It’s very different from what’s gone before but not entirely out of keeping as its discordance and stench of hissing snakes make it a deathly ode.
There are plenty of Polish black and death metal bands out there but Genius Ultor manage to respect old traditions in their style and hit us with billowing plumes of smoke, stifling us with technical aggression and power. It all seems to be over very quickly but this is a genuinely good album. Zwycięstwo!
(8 /10 Andrew Doherty)
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