Although the concept seems to wax and wane, in commercial terms at least, I’ve always felt The Album to be at the pinnacle of rock ‘n’ roll’s achievements. It elevated what started out as a singles-only affair into an artform and allowed a degree of fluid creativity that is entirely lost when platforms like Spotify are allowed to treat records like a musical pick ‘n’ mix. As a result, I’m always pleased when a band makes a deliberate plan for their work to be heard, not only within the album format, but in a specific order. Kly are one such band. A trio, whose slow-motion evolution meant that it took some twenty years to get from inception to demo; although there was only one year from that to their well-received debut, Szczerzenie. Now back with a six-track, sophomore effort, which is designed to be heard in one sitting, the band have continued their strange, poetic head-trip into the unknown. The result is not so much a mere album as a towering artistic achievement of which the band should be rightly proud.
Opening Wyrzyny, the eleven-minute Burza (My Rozgwiazdy) takes its time to emerge from a post-rock haze that seems as dense as the fog that regularly envelopes the Tatra Mountains. It’s an oddly psychedelic take on black metal, with eerie keyboards and over-lapping vocals (in the band’s native Polish) woven into the fabric of the piece. Incorporating influences from early Anathema, Burzum and post-rock such as Mogwai and Red Sparowes, Kly’s music is complex and ever-changing, always beckoning the listener further into their world with a scaly finger. Echoing fragments of speech and gothic organ open the second track, Nadwolkowyjskiej Nocy Liczba Pojedyncza, the memory of a forest bonfire turned spectral, before a hulking riff sweeps it all away and the band adopt a surprisingly straight-forward groove, although it soon evolves into a darker, more nuanced black metal track that becomes increasingly harrowing over the course of a run time that appears as half its actual length. The band’s diverse influences once more come to the fore with Krajobraz Jako Oko which, whilst tethered t black metal, uses tropes more common to alternative and even indie rock (just listen to the creeping bass line) than to traditional BM. A relatively short and left-field track, it sees Kly continue to play with expectations in a way that is both offhand and yet surprisingly effective.
Opening the album’s second side, the rippling sound of water gives way to the rampant Trojzab, a heavier track that still maintains a grasp on melody thanks to the synth lines that remain defiantly present in the mix. However, like ISIS, Kly have a habit of wrong-footing the listener and, just as the track reaches a peak in its frenzy, the band slip into rippling post rock, complete with spoken-word passages and clean guitar lines. Echoing fragments of speech lead into the cinematic Gwiezdny Wiatr, a tightly coiled, melodic piece of music with a post-punk feel. Still blisteringly heavy, it is atmosphere that the band favour above merely bludgeoning the listener, and the track moves through countless moods and influences as it progresses. With gothic overtones, Zakorzenienie sees the band retaining the cinematic heft of Gwiezdny Wiatr, entrancing the listener one final time with frozen melodies and a sense of the surreal as we enter ambient territory, passing briefly through the hellish industrial of Thorns to emerge in a twisted alt rock universe of churning guitars and tightly-woven harmonies.
Progressive is a word so freely used now that it is difficult to remember that the original idea was simply that artists would progress beyond that created by their peers and forebears. Kly understand this and have opted to draw on a wide array of influences for their second album. Whilst the work as a whole remains tethered to black metal; the conceptual elements, post-rock digressions and dark melodies are all uniquely the band’s own and it makes for a remarkable album that ebbs and flows beautifully across the course of its six tracks. A difficult, haunting album, Wyrzyny is not for everyone; but for those who are willing to spare the time and effort to truly focus upon an album rather than a collection of tracks, this is a compelling work of art that deserves attention. 9/10
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