As you’d expect from a band whose name means “northern lights” in Polish, ZØRZA are a pair who play an atmospheric type of post-black metal. They’ve a sound which honours black metal’s illustrious past whist bringing a forward-facing freshness to a scene which can often veer towards the generic. Subsequently, their debut EP, IEI is a release that’s guaranteed to sound exciting many years hence.
Having only formed in 2022 (and hailing from Grodzisk Wielkopolski, Poland), IEI sounds remarkably accomplished for a band so young. That it sounds so good shouldn’t really come as a surprise as both members have served time in melodic death metal band Between Nothing. ZØRZA affords them an opportunity to developed a more richly textured sound, and that becomes immediately obvious on opening track ‘Death 1’. With a guitar line so sharp it could cut your fingers, ZØRZA add layers of sound, almost imperceptibly, and before you realise, you have a huge weight bearing down upon you. Featuring ferocious blast beats, down-tuned guitars and tortured vocals, it’s every thing that good black metal should be, only with a modern twist. In short, ZØRZA haven’t sacrificed their past on the way to the future.
Comprising of Kacper Bartkowiak (bass, lyrics) and Eryk Lange (guitars, drum arrangements), ZØRZA are a compact unit, and there is a power that comes from such a combination. As is often the case, reduced numbers results in a tightly focused sound; it is honed into a tight beam of energy and that gives the following ‘St. Bigot’ a real forward motion. ZØRZA have help from guest vocalist Mateusz Sibila on the first two tracks, but mainly it is just Kacper and Eryk conspiring to create the ethereal and atmospheric Zorza, or the monolithic and majestic closer ‘IEI’. It’s this final cut which best encapsulates the band’s modus operandi; it is all-encompassing and such is it’s hypnotic, other-worldly quality that it seems to alter the very fabric of time, and it’s ten minutes seem to pass in the blink of an eye.
This is a bold and confident debut from one of Poland’s most promising young bands, and IEI could be the release with takes ZØRZA to the world.
- IEI is released via Godz Ov War Productions and is available now.
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Track List:
- Death 1
- St. Bigot
- Zorza
- IEI
