Recommended for fans of: Shining, Maladie, Der Weg Einer Freiheit
It was just last year when I stumbled across Polish Black Metal madmen Czernina for the first time, and quickly fell in love with their absolutely scorching delivery, whose impressively heavy sound was tempered – and by this I do mean strengthened – by a strain of subtle stangeness woven deep into the warp and weft of their sound.
And when I randomly discovered that the band’s third album, Oszukać Listopad, had been released just last week (and right in time for the end of the month) I knew it was their turn to be on the receiving end of another one of my discography deep-dives.
So if you’re looking for a dose of unflinchingly causitc, yet also unusually creative Black Metal (there’s a reason, after all, that the above “for fans of” references are all for bands who err towards the proggier, yet also punishing, side of the genre)… well, here’s not one but three lethal injections to stick straight into your veins.
2020 – HYMNS OF PESTILENCE
Skipping past the cantankerous instrumental opener that is “Opening”, it’s with the brutish, clanging guitars and whirling, dervish-like drums of “A Letter From the Mortal” that Hymns of Pestilance really gets going, and whatever the track might lack in polish or restraint (though it’s not afraid to drop into a pugnacious, punky groove when the moment calls for it) it more than makes up for in raw energy and spiteful vocal venom.
The even nastier, blastier (borderline thrashier) strains of “Second Confession” continues the album’s almost-unwavering focus on frenzied aggression – with just the occasional hint of melodic menace to be heard here and there – after which the almost (but not quite) DSBM-adjacent creep and crawl of “Wraith MMX” makes it clear that, for all their love of going in all guns blazing, they’re just as good when they take their foot off the gas (with the song’s killer combination of doomy grooves and menacing melody, interpsersed with sudden bursts of incandescent rage, making for arguably the album’s first major stand-out).
The crusty, blackened catharsis of “L.T.F.C.” is also another obvious highlight, its raw, ramshackle intensity, beefy, booming guitars (these guys absolutely put to bed the accusation that “Black Metal has no riffs”, that’s for sure), and surprisingly sharp hooks all combining into a lean, mean, three-and-a-half minute burst of pure venom and vitriol, after which – following the welcome breather that is “Into the Mud Called Life” – the almost Blackened Death barrage of “Death Smiles At Us All” somehow takes things a step heavier.
Last, but by no means least, “The Blackest Filth” leans back towards the “edge-of-your-seat, everything-is-about-to-fly-apart” feel of the album’s earlier numbers – think along the lines of “what if Napalm Death were a Black Metal band” – albeit with an even greater sense that the group is about to spontaneously combust at any moment, and while the album as a whole ultimately doesn’t add much that new to the canon, it certainly doesn’t lack for pure, unadulterated intensity, that’s for damn sure.
2024 – NA POGRANICZU USIDLENIA
I said so at the time, and I’ll say it again here… Czernina‘s second album has to be one of the most under-appreciated releases of 2024 – simultaneously a major highlight and a hidden gem.
Wielding an even thicker, heavier, and almost armour-clad guitar tone – comparable to the likes of Der Weg Einer Freiheit, Gorycz, and Wesenwille – as well as a newfound love of sinister, synth-y undercurrents (as demonstrated by the opening title track) Na pograniczu usidlenia is not only just as vicious, and just as visceral as its predecessor (the scalding shriek of guitarist/vocalist Asbiel in particular reamains a prime example of eye-popping, throat-scraping savagery) but also more polished, more purposeful, and more powerful to boot.
And a big part of what really drives this home is that for every moment where the humongously heavy guitars and thick, coiled bass-lines (auhor’s note: the low end here is one which really deserves to be heard through a good pair of headphones or speakers) absolutely dominate – “Lustro” is an absolute monster, for example – there are almost as many passages (such as the gloomy, groovy outro of the previously mentioned track) which focus more on unsettling atmosphere and ominous, oppressive weight.
As a result of this several songs – including the seething, slithering “On” (which once again puts the lithe, serpentine bass-work front and centre) and the brooding, proggy powerhouse that is “Przeoczyć Wiosnę” – stretch out a little further, a little longer, and a little (or, as the case may be, a lot) more creatively (the latter track even has a hint of Grey Aura‘s simmering cinematic approach to songwriting, juxtaposing moody introspection with bleeding-edge catharsis).
But, let me be clear, none of this comes at the cost of the album’s unapologetic extremity – “Mara”, for example, is an absolute monster of scything, discordant guitars and seething blastbeats, building to a truly crushing crescendo – it simply means that the band have found even more ways to be extreme (with a song like “(Nie)jasnowidzenie”, the record’s longest and most ambitious number, successfully capturing them at both their heaviest and their proggiest) without sacrificing either their integrity or their intensity.
2025 – OSZUKAĆ LISTOPAD
Very much a companion piece to last year’s Na Pograniczu Usidlenia – without, it must be noted, being a simple carbon-copy – Oszukać Listopad picks up pretty much right where its predecessor left off, by continuing to beef up the band’s sound (the sheer size of the guitar tone on opener “Czekać Na Śmierć Jak Gwiazdy Na Noc” is a sight for sore ears) and twist their songwriting into ever more unusual and unorthodox shapes.
“Eigangrau”, for example, gallops and grooves, shudders and shimmies, like the band are undergoing a very bad trip, but are still compelled to keep playing by some unseen, irresistiable force while the lurching, discordant chord patterns and rumbling, undulating bass-lines of “Zadając Pytanie” further showcase the group’s increasing willingness to expriment with elements both traditional and modern (and here I should pause a moment to heap some well-deserved praise on drummer Grzegorz Borak for his absolutely ferocious, yet compelling creative, performance behind the kit) from both within and beyond the Black Metal scene.
Things take an even more unusual turn in the middle of the album, with the band putting three of the shortest (and, perhaps, strangest?) tracks of their career back-to-back (to back) in the form of “Oczy Pełne Szkła” (one minute and thirteen seconds of chaotic Blackened Crust that never seems to settle into a single, coherent shape), the absolutely crushing (not to mention genre-defying) “Oszukać Listopad”, and the bristling, blast-driven spasms of “Magnolie”, each of which – in their own way – seek to combine the primal punkiness of their early work with the preternatural progginess of their current sound.
The simmering, Shining-esque strains of “Czas Zamiast Krwi” then see the group shifting focus to the darker and moodier side of their sound, balancing brooding, infectious grooves and bruising, impactful riffs with a dash of jazzy delirium and a touch of doomy grandeur (building to a wickedly nasty climax) before the writhing, blasting strains of “Pustka W Niebycie” – think early Der Weg Einer Freiheit with a more abrasive edge – bring things to a suitably harsh, yet eerily hypnotic, close!