Having burst out of Poland in 2022, it has been something of an astronomical rise for post-black metal band ZØRZA. After hitting us with their debut EP IEI (reviewed here), the band follow up with the knockout blow that is their first long player Hellven. Utilising to the full the elongated running time an album offers, ZØRZA have crafted an album that grapples with some of life’s biggest questions and in doing so have created an album not only for our time, but for all time.

Creating a real sense of place and time, introduction ‘Western Forest Rites’ is an ominous way to begin Hellven and it proves itself pretty prophetic. It features crows calling beneath a vast, angry leaden sky that’s about to unleash a torrential storm at any moment…and when that storm arrives in the shape of ‘Night Of The Werewolf’, it is with some force. The band prove themselves a raging tempest and surround the listener as such, with howling guitars and thunderous drums. Guitarist E. Lange is responsible for the mix and he’s done a great job by placing the band in the eye of the tornado and subsequently the sound radiates in all directions. Whereas much black metal can be thin and reedy, the sound contained on Hellven is rich and lustrous, and creates a feeling of something so vast and huge that it’s almost beyond comprehension; it’s a nowhere ending sky or the weight of the ocean bearing down upon the seabed and the result is awe-inspiring in its majesty.

I first discovered ZØRZA via their debut EP (the aforementioned IEI), so I wondered how they would approach the album as an art form in itself; an extended play is more like a calling card, whereas a LP should ebb and flow and take the listener on a musical journey and that’s precisely what Hellven does. This record has a lot of tools at its disposal and the darkly ambient ‘Zorza II’ reverberates on a primordial level and reaches deep into our soul. Using tonality to great effect it alters our physiology and transports us to another plane and means that when the following ‘Danse Macabre’ hits, it hits hard. Yet even when ZØRZA are assailing our senses with some of the finest post-black metal, it is rarely mindless violence. Heaviness is merely used as a foil for the lithe; each acting as a foil for the other, creating a tension of opposites and is symptomatic of the duality that runs throughout the record.

Closing the album is a cover of Windir’s ‘Journey To The End’ on which the band impart their own personality without veering too far from the original, and hopefully it’ll have a cross pollination effect; turning some ZØRZA fans onto Windir (and vice versa). ZØRZA have stepped up to the album with consummate ease and you feel that the sky really is the limit.

• Hellven is released via Godz Ov War Productions and is available now (from here).
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Track List:

1. Western Forest Rites
2. Night Of The Werewolf
3. Death II
4. Lunacy Of Memories
5. The Crown With Silver Thorns
6. Zorza II
7. Danse Macabre
8. Under The Reign Of The Black Moon
9. Journey To The End