Formidable double-disc set by Whalesong from Poland – the band are credited here as a four-piece, although I think it’s mostly the efforts of Michal Kielbasa, who plays a colossal number of instruments (his arrival at international airports causes consternation among the security crew whenever he goes on tour). Guitars, keyboards, and 18 types of percussion all fall under his mighty fists, plus his did the production, mixing, and engineering too.
Besides the band-mates Zawadzki, Dziemski and Aranguren (drums, gtr and vox respectively), this release is supplemented by a number of guest recruits drawn from the world-wide “dark army” of underworld doom-rocksters and industrial death merchants, notably Attila Csihar who has wailed about the futility of the universe in the company of Sunn O))), plus one member of Imperial Triumphant, one from Senyawa, a crazy vibraphone player Tomasz Herisz, and an equally demented sax player Aleksader Papierz who screams alarmingly through his metal python whenever he’s let out of his box. Leaving A Dream (ZOHARUM ZOHAR 300-2 / OLD TEMPLE OLD.209) lurches across a plethora of genres and splinter genres, sometimes including very experimental sound-scaping in among the more conventional goth-tinged, semi-operatic rock dirges with their hideous vocal parts, songs which trudge reluctantly through Hell while dragging the twin stones of Wrath and Hatred.
It’s tempting to think Kielbasa is attempting a Stephen O’Malley-styled studio extravaganza with this monster, except he’s more steeped in Eastern European culture, frequently expressing the history of political oppression through musical metaphors, and lamenting about it in a very desolate way as expressively as any pack of full-throated wolves in search of their next meal. Unlike O’Malley, this record doesn’t do much to emulate the richness of Miles Davis or Alice Coltrane records either, despite liner notes’ assurance of same, referring to a long shopping list of “references” which includes “jazz”. The emotional intensity is heavy going for sure, amounting to a bludgeoning of the mind with metal hammers, not made any easier by the general lack of cohesion and form in Whalesong’s sprawling churn of sound. Maybe he spends so long overdubbing all the instruments, he forgets to make a composition. On the other hand, I found slightly more experimentation, subtlety and sheer strangeness on the second disc, which includes longer pieces such as ‘From The Ashes’, a harrowing vision torn from the slough of despond where the writhing tortured voices do much of the heavy lifting; and ‘She Kissed Me With Her Venomous Lips’, where the excesses and high volume antics of the first disc have been peeled away, leaving us with a bedrock of pure, seething, evil.
Jointly released with the Old Temple label, another Polish enterprise which has spawned many records of Black Metal, Death Metal, and Doom Metal. This record dares to pose the age-old question, “What happens to the dream when the dreamer disappears?” and was premiered with a special concert at the “Castle Party” festival – never attended it, but I expect it involves being clapped in shackles and shoved in a dark cell. We’ve heard previous horrors from Kielbasa, such as his remorseless Nothing Has Changed release from 2021, and Harmony Of Struggle, a nasty piece of power electronics from 2022. But if you want to swallow the full deep-dish experience, listen to this. From 6th September 2023.