One of the greatest things about the glory of metal music is how far reaching it has become across the world as it feels like every other country has loads of metal acts to call their own, and with that comes vocal carnage in many different languages. And that is a problem for some people, and I don’t have any idea why. I can understand wanting to have the lyrics in your own language to know what’s being said, but in no way should that prevent you from enjoying the material. Luckily, I’ve never had that problem so I’ve been able to enjoy exemplary acts like Popiół.

I’m not sure if you can tell, but Polish is far from my native tongue, and I don’t think I will ever come close to understanding a single lick of that dialect, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate when someone does a vocal performance in Polish. If anything, I like it a little bit more simply because it allows me to fall back into the music even more and become all the more immersed in what I’m hearing, and it’s with “Zabobony” that I was able to just that right off the bat. I’ve always hailed a band that can manage to bring all the familiar flavors of a style while, ultimately, creating something that’s quite all their own and something we can really sink our teeth into, and it really feels as though Popiół has created an epitome of such with this very record. “Zabobony” creates us with loads of what we’ve come to love from black metal and yet this act has managed to incorporate a special sense of spiritualism that’s carefully draped over these eights track to where it’s always present, but never overpowering, and through this thin veil Popiół is able to bring forth a fresh taste on black metal that doesn’t do anything new, but it feels quite new which is all you need as listener sometimes. From shorter songs and somber pieces to lengthy gasps of pure intensity, “Zabobony” has covered a solid chunk of the spectrum to provide an immensely balanced and entertaining listen the likes of which we simply don’t get too incredibly often in such potency as Popiół has provided us.

While it’s with just about every band of every style that provides us with a new and slightly modified version of the formula for whatever style is being done, it’s with acts like Popiół that we actually see bands trying new things without deviating too incredibly far. And it’s with albums like “Zabobony” that we actually see it get pulled off incredibly well, and it’s the sort of thing that can really sweep over certain parts of the scene if only given the chance.

“Zabobony” releases on February 27th via Godz ov War Productions!

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