Reviews list for Stworz - U Śmierci na komornem (2025)

“This is the album Drudkh should have released this year.” That is what I wrote in my comments cell in my spreadsheet when listening through the first couple of runs of this album. There are a couple of reasons behind that statement. Firstly, Stworz sounds pretty much the same as Drudkh, vocally and musically. Therefore, it is easy to get stuck in treating U śmierci na komornem as the album the Ukrainians failed to release this year. Secondly, and most importantly, it is much more direct and immediate than Shadow Play. For an artist advertised as atmospheric/pagan black metal and neofolk there is some real grit behind the stylings of Stworz. Think Swan Road era Drudkh and you are (again) at a relevant benchmark. Wojsław, is also one half of Polish atmospheric black metallers, Wędrujący Wiatr and anyone familiar with his excellent work there will not be surprised to hear the quality of his song craft in his solo work. Involved in several other projects, Stworz is his longest running artistic stream. Since 2007 he has produced now seven albums alongside various EPs and splits, easily falling into the classification tag of “prolific” with his musical output.

U śmierci na komornem, flows effortlessly both in-track and across the whole album. Seemingly with an inexhaustible level of endurance, the album just keeps going, workmanlike, for ten tracks over fifty-five-minutes. It is hard to find fault in such a devotional level of commitment to one’s artform when it clearly translates into such quality output. Stworz thinks about balance too. Although the folk/pagan elements are present, they are not forced into tracks. Instead, they complement the more aggressive direction, acting almost as a connection (hook even) to a more simplistic yet endearing form of music. Even the instrumental, interludes work well here, although I note on the CD version the final track is some nine-minutes long as opposed to the near three-minutes on the digital version, so the final track might not be all instrumental depending on the version you have.

We are getting to the point in the year where my top 20 albums in black metal are about to be culled to a top ten, which is a sign of a good year if I am having to narrow that number down. Looking at the other artists in the running, Stworz more than hold their own against the other contenders. U śmierci na komornem matches the passion of Gràb’s Kremess, it drives along the same earthy paths as Havukruunu’s Tavastland, exists in the same atmospheric hue as Afsky’s Fællesskab and carries the same level of maturity so obvious on A Flock Named Murder’s Incendiary Sanctum. Without constructing unfathomable complexity or alienating sounds, Stworz’s album blends styles sublimely. It creates atmosphere without getting into ethereal spaces that come across as lofty or overdone. Above all it feels like it was made for you, the listener. It has personality.