Vos, the man “without a heart” from Poland is back with his second album, the title of which seems to translate to “Forever A Shadow.” The silhouetted entity caught attention with debut album Wędrówkę haniebnie zakończyć a long five years ago and has seemingly grown since then as both musician and creator of a particularly cold and frosty world. With 6 tracks spanning at just shy of an hour in length this is almost twice as long as its predecessor and a really immersive listening experience to lose oneself in over long mid-winter nights.

Obviously this is essentially atmospheric black metal and all titles, lyrics and narrative are presented in Polish so a certain amount of digging frozen earth is necessary to get beneath the layers. From the somewhat barren forested cover art to the translation of titles such as ‘Don’t Even Try’ and ‘Thank You For Being Here’ it seems that there is a certain amount of humour in any message behind it all.

With tracks allowed to somewhat decadently sprawl there is plenty to take in here. What is evident is the heaving hostility and quite multi-layered approach which is counterpoised by passages of somewhat delicate and sparse guitar lines which have a ‘light-shining like a beacon’ approach about them and augment the sound with an almost gothic and indeed shadowy tenebrosity. Vocals are feral and snarl away with conviction adding to the motion of the more violent parts here and fit in perfectly with the music. As for the melody it is enthused at times with a quite dour and pessimistic feel. There is nothing particularly light and happy about it and it suggests a struggle over harsh landscapes where it is hard to survive.

There is a certain amount of repetitiveness about this template but it is all handled well with the moroseness of the slower parts used to anchor the mind of the listener before the next seething part hones in. This is no complaint in the slightest and exactly why the genre is so popular with those who love lengthy, windswept and barren musical landscapes. It certainly helps take you out of the comfort of any living room and plummets you into an unforgiving environment. This is never more evident than on the 14-minute epic penultimate number ‘Piosenka o niczym’ which despite containing so much depth and scope is again wryly translated as a “Song about nothing.”

This is not an album for individual track dissection but one where all the component parts entwine into a fluid listening experience. There is a bit of an obscure surprise at the end though, a cover song by Der Golem a Russian band with a seemingly apocryphal past (both members dead, one via suicide). Apparently Солнце Мёртвых “The Sun Of The Dead” was a track from the short-lived career of a band who stylistically embraced Industrial, Post Rock, Shoegaze, Ambient & Post-punk. After the somewhat explosive end of the album leading up to this the track fits in well as a more chilled epitaph, until Vos gets his crazy on and plunges it into a seething tumult of blackened fury. The post-punk strum is a welcome conclusion and it is certainly worth tracking down the original version to compare and contrast.

(8/10 Pete Woods)

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/na-zawsze-cieniem