Although Pogarda are a new (“certified fresh”) band having formed earlier this year, they have a wealth of experience and have honed their sound within the depths of the Polish underground music scene. Having wasted little time, the band have formulated a deliciously dark sound that brought them to the attention of label Godz Ov War Productions, and the first fruit of their union is the Czarne Obrazy EP. Featuring five tracks over 21 expressive minutes, this extended play makes the perfect calling card and signposts big things.
Evidencing wise heads on young shoulders, Pogarda don’t feel the need to arrive with all guitars blazing, preferring to create a sense of time and place with a haunting introduction, and it is one that insidiously ingratiates itself deep within the listener’s psyche. With the guitar and bass hanging starkly against a white canvas, Podarda create a soundscape that seems to echo from another dimension. It’s ethereal and swirls through the air like a spectre, it is as if the band are pulling back the veneer that separates this world from the next, offering a frightening glimpse of what likes beyond. It means that when the band kick in at the two-minute mark, they kick in hard with a blast of black metal that’s all the more powerful for its sudden arrival. It creates a nice tension of opposites between the light and shade, the heavy and the lithe, and these themes will echo throughout the EP as the band flit between the two with great dexterity.
The gaps between the five songs have been kept deliberately short and that means Czarne Obrazy ebbs and flows like one long movement. With guitars dualling in an erratic fashion on ‘Nieludzkie Pragnienie’ it sounds as if the band are channelling an evil spirit through an Ouija board. In fact, the whole EP feels like an exercise in the dark arts with the following ‘A Czwarta Plaga…’ mixing up tempos to great effect and being akin to a wild ride on a witches broomstick. With the motifs introduced on the opening track reappearing on closer ‘Wilki Wyja’, a mirror image is created to bookend the release and that makes for a memorable conclusion.
Record label Godz Ov War often release product by bands who have at least something out in the world, even if is only a demo tape, but with Pogarda they have a clean slate and it will be interesting to see how they grow and develop together. And with Czarne Obrazy in their arsenal, Pogarda are destined for great things.
- Czarne Obrazy is released via Godz Ov War Productions and is available now (available here).
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Track List:
- Lament
- Nieludzkie Pragnienie
- A Czwarta Plaga…
- Freski
- Wilki Wyja
