Review: THY WORSHIPER – Winter Dream / Tym z krainy cieni

Year of release: 2016
Label: Dark Omens Production
Оценка: 7,2 / 10

In these rather dark days, when the head refuses to accept anything new, you can turn to the classics. The THY WORSHIPER band, despite its old age, has never been very popular. The band comes from the crucible of early Polish Black Metal, but the followers of that scene, as far as I know, dislike THY WORSHIPER for a very long time, because the band, in their opinion, betrayed the scene or something. In fact, the current THY WORSHIPER do not at all resemble the former one, but I cannot say that they have become worse.

По сути, творчество THY WORSHIPER делится на два периода, плюс младенчество. В младенчестве (1993) поляки записали чистый Black Metal на репетиционной точке, глупо обозвав ту кассету “Paganization”. На барабанах там, к слову, играл, ни много ни мало, Capricornus. С 1994-го по 1996-й группа исполняла характерный польский Dark Metal с отголосками Black Metal и намёками на языческие убеждения. Затем коллектив распался. В 2000-м году был готов материал для нового альбома, но вышел он лишь в феврале 2019-го, в рамках отдельного проекта. А THY WORSHIPER продолжал спать, чтобы возродиться вновь уже в Ирландии, в 2005-ом. Альбом “Signum”, выпущенный сразу после возрождения, был живым воплощением творческого поиска. После него группа вновь надолго затихла… и 2014-ом разразилась шикарным “Czarna dzika czerwień”, который я считал и считаю одним из самых оригинальных метал-альбомов в истории. Просто найдите и послушайте.

One way or another, “Winter Dream / Tym z krainy cieni” is a completely different and very old story. It is not hard to guess that this is a collection of demos. They were released in 1994 and 1995 respectively. The "winter" demo was recorded in an appropriate setting in December 1994 and was released on Capricornus' self-titled label. Songs about fog, moon castles and mountains are dressed in a corresponding musical shell, created under the influence of BURZUM and ROTTING CHRIST. Strong melody, lots of background keyboards, unhurried epic riffs. The vocals were low then already, which is typical for all THY WORSHIPER's work, and the songs were ambitious. However, sound can be an obstacle even for an experienced listener. It's not so bad as unusual. The creative swing here is large, but the quality is rather rehearsal. But if you get used to it, the songs open up and catch you.

The last track on the demo is “The Gates of the Mountains”, and there is a big fuck up. As it turned out, in fact, this is the final composition + outro from the album of the SVANTEVITH project, which has nothing to do with THY WORSHIPER at all. If you do not know this, the difference is difficult to notice, but the fact remains. Moreover, the composition is a remake of the song of AZHUBHAM HAANI, which creates a very wild triangle. However, this is not all - apparently, this is an error not only of the CD edition, but also of the original version of the cassette. I wonder if the actual songs even exists...

The second demo was recorded a little cleaner and better; thanks to that, the band implemented more ideas. The signature moves of THY WORSHIPER appeared: rich acoustic parts (not particularly ingenious yet) and female vocals. The music in general has greatly improved the dynamics, there are more fast fragments. “Na ziemi przodków” is a killer! It is interesting that the sounding slightly diminished in extremety, however, in the texts with natural images, rather harsh anti-Christian statements are closely intertwined, and in the introduction they quite openly hail Satan himself. In 1996, the Poles released the album “Popiół (Introibo ad Altare Dei)”, which consisted of the same songs, which, however, were noticeably different in terms of performance: the whole structure became more complicated, some parts were re-invented. The album turned out to be great, but this is the case when the demo version is at least not worse. It is characterized by raw aggression and the deepest archaic atmosphere that only Poles were able to create in the early 90s.

Обе демки, вошедшие на диск, очень хороши, однако это музыка на любителя. THY WORSHIPER с самого начала не были похожи ни на представителей Храма Полной Луны, ни на парней из Дуба и Орла. Мало общего у них и с типами вроде CHRIST AGONY или TARANIS. Поэтому не могу однозначно порекомендовать сборник даже большим поклонникам старой Польши, однако попробовать можно. В ближайших дистро он стоит совсем недорого. Оформление у релиза грамотное и правильное: внутри можно посмотреть на оригинальные вкладки и почитать тексты ко второму демо. Подробности on a video. Прикладываю для ознакомления трек с YouTube, потому что дуралеи с Dark Omens сделали на Bandcamp доступным для прослушивания только вступление.