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Gontyna Kry > Welowie > Reviews
Gontyna Kry - Welowie

Welowie - 100%

HIEROPHANT, January 3rd, 2005

This is one of the best demo/albums to come out of Poland. What immediately grabs me about "Welowie" apart from other demos and albums is the guitar work. The first two songs have a similar structure of a clean guitar opening and then a dual guitar assault blazing through each track with intricate and actually somewhat calm chord changes. Their use of harmony is different from a lot of polish bands and black metal bands. They have some subtle leads harmonized in 3rds and 5ths mainly as well as some counterpoint melodies that catch your ear after a few listens. The third track is a very celtic feeling piece switching from ABAC structure to a second half common in traditional music of northern Europe. Tracks 4-7 seem to all just flow right into oblivion with a combination of different elements used in the first 2 tracks only faster and almost swedish sounding. The fifth song opens with a riff that could easily be mistaken for a lost riff off of Eucharist's "A Velvet Creation" only with a Gontyna Kry guitar tone. The bass is not as audible and somehow seems better that way. The last track is just haunting and unpredictable. It closes the album with the concept of ancestors and pride the same way it starts. Everyone complains about these drums. The drums are sloppy as hell but very fitting to the rawness of the recording. They sound like they were played from an electronic kit right into a board. I think peoples complaints about the drums are probably due to the fact that it sounds like the songs were recorded first (without drums) and not played along to a click track. Thus, adding drums to something not perfectly in time makes the drummer sound like he is lost. The drummer is certainly a good drummer by listening to other albums. But the overall feel of this album with everything said is something that will never be reproduced by any band. Gontyna Kry stand on their own as an elite class of black metal and "Welowie" should never be forgotten or passed up as anything less than essential.

How do you pronounce that, anyway? - 92%

Cheeses_Priced, December 27th, 2004

This band and this album are no doubt old news to individuals well-versed in the Polish black metal scene, but I only recently had the luck to stumble upon them.

I think of Polish black metal as falling into two categories of roughly equal importance: 1) Graveland and 2) Everything Else, the second being a massive horde of bands with unpronounceable names that probably sound like Graveland anyway – but who can be bothered to check every last one? And to be honest, I never have been able to get all that into Graveland – I respect the band, but they never quite captured my imagination. Probably everyone has a couple of bands that are like that for them.

Gontyna Kry, as it turns out, really sound very little like Graveland, except perhaps for the simple, tapped-out drumming style, which lends tension to the music as it shifts tempos underneath the riffing. The guitar playing, on the other hand, which is naturally the driving force and centerpiece of the album, is unlike any other black metal I can recall. Not only is it blatantly melodic, it’s actually surprisingly harmonious. This is not really something that I would describe and harsh or raw at all; even in the face of the occasional blast beat or the raw edge of the guitar tone, this is extremely ear-pleasing music.

That’s not a quality to be confused with weakness or commercialism, however. Gontyna Kry use melody as a medium for articulation instead of an artificial sweetener for rock hooks. Honestly, it’s so rare to hear a band that sounds absolutely nothing like Iron Maiden whatsoever using dual guitar harmonies that it me with a mild shock on first listen. This band works in a different emotional range than what’s usually associated with black metal: sadness, triumph, glory to the past, of course; but their melodic style tinges them all with a unique character and personality – a characteristic I admire In spite of the “negative” emotions and atmosphere, it sounds more like daytime and sunlight than darkness and shining stars, at least to me.

The only complaint that I have is that the album only runs for about twenty-six minutes. Without a doubt, the best black metal I’ve happened upon any time recently.

The closest thing to perfection I've ever heard. - 99%

Kriegsminister, June 6th, 2004

Although I'm an admitted Burzum and Graveland fanatic, I have to say that my favorite album of all time comes from this outwardly unassuming Polish band. Although Gontyna Kry only released three full-length albums before calling it quits in late 2002, they somehow managed to create 'Welowie,' an epic black metal work devoted to their heathen ancestors. The music is lovingly crafted and exceptionally well-played; it's a truly harmonious work that sends shivers down my spine every time I listen to it. Despite the fact that I discovered 'Welowie' in a time of personal difficulty, this is not one of those sentimental favorites with glaring flaws that I overlook because it "helped get me through a hard time." On the contrary, 'Welowie' is a work that will stand the test of time (I believe) because it resonates on many levels.

This album is very emotional, with or without the personal sob-story. But the thing that makes it work really well is the fact that it runs the gamut of human emotions...at times, it sounds very mournful (the first track, 'Kruk Smierci' or 'Raven Of Death' is the best example of this) but at other times, it's quite aggressive (most of the other tracks) and still at others, almost celebratory. As the other reviewers have mentioned, this really stands in contrast with most other Polish BM, which to me is a good thing. Although I generally like the very grim stylings of the Polish scene as a whole, it's nice to be pleasantly surprised every now and then. 'Welowie' is one such pleasant surprise, particularly since nothing else Gontyna Kry ever made sounds at all like it. I give this album my utmost recommendation to anyone with more than a passing interest in black metal or just good music in general.

Surprising... - 88%

webermg, April 21st, 2003

I must admit, when I first heard of this band, I didn't expect to like it. I'm usually wary of uber-underground NS black metal bands with funny names...from Poland, no less. But this is actually quite good.

What sets Gontyna Kry apart from the black metal hordes is probably the vocals. They're completely unintelligible, and resemble odd shrieks of madness. Imagine the strange howls in Graveland's "A Time For Revenge"*, but as the sole vocal style. It's kind of scary at first, since they aren't constant. They will yell something, and then won't say anything for a few seconds, then spontaneously yell again. Creepy.

Anyway, enough about the vocals. The music is depressive, not really fast at all, with minimum use of blastbeats (thank God). The entire cd is only 30 minutes long, which is probably a good thing, as it doesn't have enough diversity to fill up an hour, and I guess they are smart enough to quit while they're ahead. The last two tracks feature spoken vocals (in Polish) along with the bloodcurdling shrieks, and are possibly creepier than the regular vocals, especially on the last track. The third track, "Za Kraj, Za Krew", is some kind of pagan dance music, which is a nice break from the regular BM grind.

The production is raw, but better than I expected. Or maybe I'm just getting immune to bad production.

Overall, I would recommend this to the avid BM fan. It isn't high art, but it succeeds at what it tries to do, which is more than most BM manages to do. If you are a fan of atmosphere, this is definitely for you.

Highlights: "Satyr", "Ostrzu Pana, Uderz!"

*"A Time For Revenge" appears on "Thousand Swords" by Graveland.