EerieWell when you call a band eerie that’s what you expect but that is not the feeling one gets first from the music from this Polish duo. I guess if something is eerie it is sinister in atmosphere and dwells around the fringes like a cold shroud of fog but in contrast to this the group strike as much more in the face and confrontation over these four lengthy numbers. The players themselves are Ancestor of Outre and Formosus on guitar and V.O.W.O.C which is a pseudonym and a half on vocals; as for other instruments there are none actually credited, so filling in those gaps is not possible. This is a spanking brand new project formed in 2014 and Into Everlasting Death is their debut, more than that I cannot really tell you so it’s straight into the music itself.

First task is working out the sample that bookends the album and I thought at first it might be ole Clint Eastwood due to the craggy vocal but had to cheat and go on a search engine and discover it is actually from True Detective. Should have got that, excellent series. From here things absolutely batter in on opening track ‘Mining Out Of Black Earth’ with huge pulverising drums and sharp stabbing riffs. It’s all fierce and uncompromising but sounds sharp and incredibly well-coordinated as far as its attacking demeanour is concerned. When vocals enter they are very much in the face as well, loud, high in the mix and yelling in surprisingly English rather than the Polish language I would have expected. The pace is not all one dimensional and settles down with parts that are slower but no less punishing with the riffs and hard drum hits defined in elongated tones (ha I still wouldn’t call it eerie though). Some higher rasps elevate the vocals from any accusations of one dimensionality and the track swaggers off with some groovy melodic juxtaposition about it that gets right in your head. There are feelings of orthodoxy about this but I think that’s down to the more spoken clamoured out vocal parts than anything else. It is definitely pitch black in execution. As the title track flies in the windswept feel of it all becomes all the more apparent and it does kind of remind of our own likes of Wodensthrone and Winterfylleth a fair bit, I guess the fact that the vocals are in English enhances this feeling. With spite and scorn surging through them it’s a pretty potent sermon too with the more grandiose parts of the music allowing their venomous bite to really stand out.

The tracks here are far from short and very well defined but with ‘Among The Ashes’ we go for the epic at over 12 minutes long. With the words “Ashes to Ashes” bellowed out riffs glimmer and glisten turning into a smoking furnace that literally scorches and again this reminds me of another British band namely Fen as it has a huge sense of grandeur and atmosphere about it and some massive surging parts. This is an incredibly mature work and it’s obvious that even though it’s a brand new act those behind it have honed their craft over time in the other bands they are involved in. The blazing musical perdition is not over yet and it’s down to the last number ‘Of Descending Moon’ to build into a near pagan galloping fury to take us out in a pretty breath-taking fashion.

This one took a fair few listen to really get below the surface as it is quite a dense affair with a lot going on in it. Once it did though it delivers a right hefty wallop and the un-eerie Eerie are another Polish tour de force who are definitely worthy of your attention. “So it is done” Indeed!

(8/10 Pete Woods)

http://eeriebm.bandcamp.com/releases

https://www.facebook.com/eeriebm