TRUCHŁO STRZYGI – Pora Umierać [Time To Die]

After years and years of listening, it's getting increasingly difficult to get surprised or simply amused by a new band, even more if we are talking about being able to find its space in the CD player. Yet the metal scene — and not only that — has churned out, and keeps churning out, an endless series of good records, perhaps some too derivative and other with an excessively formal content, yet still able to be appreciated.

This is the case of Truchło Strzygi's debut, a scornful album, with an old-school style raw to the bone, which seems endowed with the right qualities to open a crack and have something to say in its small way. "Pora Umierać" (whose English translation is "Time To Die") sounds appealing and violent from the first to the last minute, thanks to a mixture that is anything but homogeneous with black, death, speed metal and hardcore-punk with — sometimes in an inconsiderate manner — acid and abrasive vocals supported on several occasions by choruses and veritable outbursts of rage and screams.

The Poles' music doesn't care about fashions or following a precise path, also renouncing to a clean production (today a very widespread solution) in favor of rotness and imperfections. The band strikes with pure headbanging sections; however, they don't give up on amassing darkness in a strange way that seems to throw against us classics like Hellhammer, Bathory, Venom and Darkthrone, even referring partially to the — chronologically speaking — nearest to us Midnight; even in more than one circumstance there's a feeling that Carnivore are an integral part of the party. Songs such as "Sadystyczny Masowy Mord", "Świat Pędzi Ku Przestrodze (Pradawne Demony)", "Śmierć I Płomień" and "Stary Kult Śmierci (Ozłocone Truchło)" have managed to get into our heads.

In the end, Truchło Strzygi are a band to keep an eye on, since their work exudes a taste of old, also confirmed by the cover and graphic and color choices used to make the voluminous booklet (containing texts exclusively in Polish). So do not underestimate these guys, because every time you listen to them you will notice the appeal of times gone by that make "Pora Umierać" a very welcome company with a very high volume.