Angrrsth / Czort - W czeluść

ANGRRSTH / CZORT - W czeluść (Split CD GODZ OV WAR - CD 2022)

When I first saw the announcement of Angrrsth / Czort "W czeluść" split CD I immediately thought that this has to be a highly anticipated album. And one of the better releases coming this year from Godz ov War (but let's not forget about Under the Sign of Garazel Productions, who co-released this CD). It's not an exaggeration, because both bands have left incredibly good impression with releases such as "Donikąd" and "Apostoł". These albums are even more worthy for me, because I am not a great fan of most of the current black metal coming from Poland - too many bands simply annoy me to give a fuck about them. But both Angrrsth and Czort are great, so this is why I was so eager to hear this split. And well, I am not disappointed at all. 

Angrrsth comes first, with two songs "Pętla" and "Przerwana" (these titles will again give a headache to all non-Polish listeners haha but hey, we also had to suffer when reading titles such as "Niðr ok Norðr liggr Helvegr" or "Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz..." haha). And I cannot decide, which of these two songs I like more, they are both so damn good. Everything about Angrrsth music is brilliant, I think, from great riffs (the second minute of "Pętla" is just killerrrrr!!!), nice combination of fast black metal and more melodic, sometimes almost bombastic black metal. Arrangements on these two songs are fantastic, Angrrsth will not allow you to feel bored, so much interesting stuff is going on here... And I don't mean just the tempo changes, it's not that easy. Great and diverse vocal lines (including a bit of clean male vocal lines) is one of the most noteworthy things here, I really like that aspect of Angrrsth music. But there more nice details thrown within these songs, which makes them so fascinating and capturing. Also, it's really cool how catchy and memorable these songs, despite the obvious viciousness and aggression, which characterizes this style of music. Finally, the production on this material is great. Obviously, long gone are times, when most of the black metal releases sounded like recorded in the deep arse-hole of the devil himself, nowadays you could get a great sound easily and without much money involved. But the production of this Angrrsth material is brutal and fierce, perfectly suiting the music. 

When compared to Angrrsth’s “modern” black metal, Czort music sounds much more traditional, both in its approach and sound. In my opinion, it's not as good too, but that doesn't mean that I don't like it. I do, actually. Czort is a solid and worthy band, whose previous releases were all good, and it is not different with these two new tracks. I say that their music has more classic black metal style, but do not think that it is a primeval Darkthrone-ish stuff or something like that. You will notice though that Czort combines melodies with that harsh, obscure black metal and sometimes it sounds like a combination of Scandinavian and Greek styles, with a bit of old Polish stuff too. It's aggressive, very dark and malicious in its atmosphere and just damn well played. Again, I can only speak in positive words about this music. Some of you may not be sure if split between Czort and Angrrsth is the best combination, but I think it is better than listening to two completely similar bands. Besides, both bands delivered great songs, what else do we need? 

Verdict: 85/100