These Olsztyn bastards have been carving out their corner of the Polish pagan underground since 2016, and with lauks, their 5th full-length, dropped March 27 through M-Theory Audio, they’ve stripped the fat and gone straight for the throat. 35 minutes, eight tracks, no mercy. Lasota runs the show on vocals, guitars and lyre, Jan Gralla brings the talharpa, goat horn, wooden tube and extra vocal savagery, Deiv locks down the bass, and Jakub Wieczerzycki hammers the drums like he’s personally offended by silence.
They recorded the whole thing live in the ruins of some old castle, letting the ghosts and damp stone seep into every riff and scream. The result? A deliberate, concentrated punch of black metal ferocity that keeps the band’s Baltic ritual roots but boils everything down to pure murderous drive. Less wandering atmospheric folk than on Bal Lada or Nie nas widzę, more constant storm of blasting aggression with just enough traditional instrumentation to remind you this shit comes from actual soil and blood, not some studio LARP session.
"czarne drogi Xsiężyca" kicks the door in with chaotic rhythmic patterns, deep aggressive walls of sound and wrathful screams that hit you right in the chest. "zwykli zmarli" keeps the pressure on with raw guitar work and those enigmatic chants that feel pulled straight from forgotten groves. "niekrwi" blasts you in the face with hellish speed before dropping into slower, heavier, almost theatrical territory that gives your neck a second to recover, then slams right back. "der tot Adalbert" leans harder into the mournful ritual side with theatrical chanting and slower waves that carry real weight. By the time "korona" and the closer "...po widok za" roll around, the frenzy is cranked to maximum: fuzzy dissonant guitars, brass sneaking through, male choir wails cutting like war horns from the old lauks, those tight ancestral settlements where “us” and “them” wasn’t up for debate.
The folk elements sit right in the structure here, talharpa whining, percussion thumping, clean “whitevoice” invocations slicing through the chaos, adding genuine texture instead of decorative bullshit. Production stays raw and mid-range heavy on purpose: late-90s spirit, unpolished, visceral, like the tape still smells of damp ruins and gunpowder. Vocals flip between harsh growls, shrieks, gutturals and those haunting clean parts that feel lifted from real old rites.
Yeah, it’s chaotic as hell at points. Riffs and blasts tumble over each other with reckless energy, transitions whip your head around, and the whole thing teeters right on the edge like Lasota warned. But that’s exactly the fucking appeal. It never fully collapses into noise; it just keeps you on your toes, delivering short, sharp strikes that feel alive and dangerous rather than safe and polished. When the ritual pockets open up, it hits with proper occult weight, like you’re standing in those castle ruins with the band, summoning something older and meaner than most modern pagan metal even tries for.
This isn’t background music for your forest selfie. Crank it loud, let the frenzy wash over you, and it rewards every spin with that territorial, no-bullshit intensity the Polish underground has always done so well. The constant high-tempo assault keeps things exciting instead of exhausting for the short runtime, and those occasional breathing moments make the next barrage land even harder.
It’s not perfect, the chaos can feel a touch too loose in a couple of spots, and a few more sticky hooks wouldn’t hurt, but lauks does exactly what Varmia set out to do: deliver raw, unvarnished pagan black metal with genuine Baltic blood pumping through its veins. Solid, spiteful, and rooted deep. Spin it when you need reminding that the old lands still have teeth. These lads are carving their own ugly little path, and this one proves they’ve still got plenty of fight left in them. Respect.
https://www.facebook.com/varmiaband
Thanks to Grand Sounds PR.
