Another ambitious outing from Polish metallers Kly, Ciene is the band’s fourth album, and it follows directly on from Chen, released back in September. The last time we caught up with this prolific act, it was for 2020’s Wyrzyny (reviewed here) and we were stunned at the time by their rare ability to entrance the listener. Released via the increasingly essential Pagan Records (Mentor / Thy Worshiper), Ciene (when) was recorded in both Katowice and Hamburg and mixed by Nihil – the same creative team as previously – and the results are equally impressive.
Opening with backwards masked dialogue, Zbarwi is a darkly claustrophobic piece of music that pairs icy riffs, ferocious percussion, and guttural vocals (sung in Polish) to traumatic effect. This is not easy, nor is it polished to a high gloss in the vein of, say, Behemoth. Rather, it treads the line between swirling post-metal and black metal, deftly melodic, but subtly so, forcing the listener to work for those rare snippets of civilisation amidst the maelstrom. It is a powerfully effective opener and draws the listener straight back into the world so recently inhabited by Wyrzyny. A shorter piece, Islga is just four minutes, but the band use the time well, carving out a surprisingly poignant atmosphere, for all of the weighty riffs that abound. A bold, arty track with spoken word vocals and airy passages of light amidst the lowering clouds, it continues the world-building of the opening work. The first half concludes with the skittering beats and awkward time signature of Niekłanie. A longer piece that plays with convention to carve out a dry, gothic atmosphere not unlike Fields of the Nephilim, it suddenly shifts gears around the mid-point, further challenging the listener to keep up with Kly’s endless machinations.
Opting for a warmer sound, with a really strong bass tone, Letarg opens the second half on a post-rock trip, mixing spoken-word vocals, effervescent synth and wiry guitar lines in a manner reminiscent of Arab Strap. Very different from that which preceded it, it’s a hypnotic track that suddenly explodes into blazing life, but even so, it remains fascinatingly different from that which preceded it. After the nine-minute sonic exploration of Letarg, the straight-forward Zagnanie comes as something of a shock to the system. Which is not to say the band have abandoned the artier direction found elsewhere, but rather that the initial stages are set as a ferocious black metal piece, and it is only later that the band allow themselves to stretch along new avenues. The album’s final track, Wietrznia is a folkier piece with echoes of latter-day Amebix (think Sonic Mass) arising from the tribal percussion, echoing, semi-spoken vocals and trance like guitar. It provides the album with a necessarily haunting conclusion, and it leaves the listener, once again, feeling as if they’ve emerged from a fugue state, surprised to find the familiar very much as it always was, having spent some forty minutes in Kly’s unique world.
In a previous review, we praised Kly for their creation of albums rather than collections of songs. This continues to be the case with Ciene, a dark, melancholy offering that seeks to draw the listener far form the everyday. It is a genuinely artistic endeavour, supported by Nihil’s deft production and augmented by the stark artwork that adorns its cover. Once again, the band have crafted a haunting journey that has much in common with the aura of originality that surrounded early black metal if not the actual sound. 9/10
