Metal Underground.com

This was the first time I had heard the music of Silesia Inferior, and I must say that I am intrigued by this Polish black metal band's style. At times introspective, and in other instances bellicose, Silesia Inferior's sound has a nice imagery to it. Although fraught with imperfections and trailing off the path of direction, they do evoke decent moods with their debut "Lot Walkirii."

Silesia Inferior start this six-song mandate with an instrumental track. Interesting to note is that half of the songs on this release are sans vocals. "Cultor Noctis" is hardly the typical instrumental, though. It is almost anthemic in quality, slamming out loud notes by the ton. I like this authoritative sound they display at times on "Lot Walkirii." The reverberating sound on this track is powerful and almost militant, with the bass and the leads shooting through the song in good lockstep.

"Pogrom Klamstw" is another blast of decibels that picks up the pace and adds groaning, tortured vocals. It takes the traditional tuning of black metal leads, accelerates the speed and ricochets it back and forth with the rhythm section. Then Silesia Inferior engages in a pattern that they have a penchant for. They will slow down the rhythm, but keep the percussion at a blast beat pace and actually make the timing work. On "Koniec," they go for that stampeding action as well, but this track tends to dissipate into a faded song that reprieves into thumping drums. It doesn't culminate into something interesting like some of the other tunes.

The other side of Silesia Inferior sees its musical introspection. "Zima Preludium Ognia" has a beat that winds and meanders around the vocalized groans, snaking through the opus in a way that is quite clever. This band writes songs whose expected climaxes are not arrived at. They keep you guessing in a way that strangely makes sense. "Kult Nocy IV" is also imbued with offbeat percussion that emulates the sounds of a chamber orchestra warming up into a pattern. After awhile it gets kind of redundant, as does "Opus VII," whose chunky beat dissolves into a droning atmospheric song.

"Lot Walkirii" makes an impression because it proves that Silesia Inferior is different. When they focus on the anthemic and the offbeat, this Polish black metal band truly shines. If they would just keep the energy level up and not let it fade into ennui on a few of the songs, this would have been a noteworthy debut.