Entropia - Ufonaut

By Ulla Roschat. Ufonaut is like a swarm of bees on a psychedelic trip, hysterically energetic and intense, a mix of overwhelming, frenzied complexity and a melodic and rhythmic catchiness

By Ulla Roschat.

Artwork by Kuba Sokólski

Ufonaut is like a swarm of bees on a psychedelic trip, hysterically energetic and intense, a mix of overwhelming, frenzied complexity and a melodic and rhythmic catchiness that is extremely compelling from the very beginning to its end.

Five piece band Entropia from Oleśnica/Poland blend sludge, psychedelic, and post metal elements into their black metal and ... abracadabra... out comes a magic potion that melts your brain as well as it crushes your skull before you even know what's happening here. But don't worry, as I said above, it's extremely compelling and that will keep you coming back and hit the play button again and again and everything begins to open up to you.

There's a black metal fury combined with a post metal ambience and psychedelic, often dissonant melodies embedded and woven into intricate structures with breathtakingly dynamic riffage and drumming. Vocals are used moderately and kept low in the mix to great effect. They sound like almost drowning in the instrumental massiveness and this way add a great sense of eerieness and despair to the already haunting and crazed out atmosphere.

Ufonaut is an excellent follow up to Entropia's debut album Vesper(2013). The CD version contains 7 songs and is about 43 minutes long, the vinyl version has an additional bonus track, which is also available as digital track on the band's Bandcamp.

The song "Apogeum" is featured on The Wicked Lady Show 107

Entropia - Vesper

Entropia's Vesper is very well crafted Polish post-black metal. You can hear elements of sludge and shoegaze in the forceful, almost groovy drumming and the layered guitars. But mainly this is dynamic black metal

Cover art by Marcin Gadomski

Entropia's Vesper is very well crafted Polish post-black metal. You can hear elements of sludge and shoegaze in the forceful, almost groovy drumming and the layered guitars. But mainly this is dynamic black metal, with strong gritty riffing, and keyboards that adds lots of chilling atmosphere without ever becoming overpowering.

Entropia is more blackened and aggressive than most bands with the "post" moniker, but the atmosphere is one of despondency, expressed by the desperation of the vocals and the song topics. According to this interview with Decibel the songs on Vesper deals with the concept that

"all kinds of people, be it a mathematician, physicist, poet, inventor or a philosopher, all of them, no matter how vast their knowledge is, how deep they understand human nature, they will always have to face loss and death, and there is no way around it, it’s just a matter of time"

The best songs on Vesper ("Dante", "Gauss", and "Marat") are what I would call "perfect" music: Never boring, but not too fanciful or inventive either. They mix aggression and solemn beauty, and toy with your imagination in a most satisfying way. The instrumental "Vesper" is basically a longish intro to "Tesla", the most aggressive track on the album, but overall this is a great debut. Highly recommended.