(written by Islander)
The Polish band Narrenwind was started by Ævil and Klimørh back in 2018, and since then they’ve released four albums and a few EPs through Pagan Records and Ævil‘s Wheelwright Productions. In that time the style of their music has changed through experimentation with different facets of metal, and it will change again with the release of their fifth album, Gorzkie Plony, which the band call “a return to the spirit of our inaugural work”.
What we have for you today is the premiere of the album’s first single, “Koniugacja“, which will be released across most streaming services on December 15th. Notably, it features session drum-work by Anti-Christian, known for his work with Doedsvangr, Beaten to Death, and formerly Tsjuder.
The song draws attention for other reasons as well, including the lyrics, which are unusual for a blackened heavy metal band, and we’ll start there.
The song’s lyrics are the text of a poem named “Koniugacja” by the Polish poet and writer Halina Poświatowska (1935-1967), about whom you can find biographical info here. You can find the poem, in Polish of course, at this location.
Poetry is always at risk of losing some of its magic when it’s translated into a language different from the one originally used in the writing, and most especially when the translation is the product of a computer algorithm — but that’s all I had available to me (I tried to find a scholarly English translation of the poem, but without success).
The poem’s name seems to mean “Conjugation,” and its text does seem to be a poignant conjugation of the verb “to pass,” and a reflection on human changes and loss brought by time’s passing. It includes these closing lines (with apologies for things that may be lost in translation):
you passed
I passed
we are gone
and that noise above
it’s the wind
it will still blow like this forever
above us
above the water
above the earth
But we ought to get to Narrenwind‘s song and the video, and what they’ve musically done around this poem.
In the video (shot by Bang Your Head Live Photography), a cloaked and hooded figure slowly walks through cemetery grounds, crumbling ruins, and a vast wooded field, and a fierce but spectral face proclaims the words in a gritty, fervent voice that rakes like barbed wire.
The vocals alone make a striking impact, but everything happening around the words is at least equally electrifying, in different ways. The drumming gallops and rumbles, spiked with exhilarating fills. The bass-lines feverishly throb. And the guitars rapidly skitter and burst, brazenly soar like glorious fire, and swirl like gleaming whirlpools
The memorable melodies are exhilarating, both jubilant and frenzied, defiant and yet maybe also despairing in their moods, and the riffing brings big hooks too (which is to say this song is very infectious). There’s also a welcome clarity and separation in the instrumentation and the vocals, which adds to the music’s galvanizing effects.
As suggested above, you might think of this hard-charging, hard-hitting, high-flying music as blackened heavy metal or even hard rock, but whatever you call it, it’s damned good.
Narrenwind‘s new album Gorzkie Plony was mixed and mastered by Haldor Grungerg at Satanic Audio. The band haven’t yet set a release date for the album — the hunt for a record label to champion the album goes on, and we hope it will be successful.
Follow the activities and progress of the band via the links below, and look for “Koniugacja” on all major digital streaming services on December 15th.
NARRENWIND LINKS:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/narrenwind
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/narrenwind_band/
Bandcamp: https://narrenwind.bandcamp.com/music