Sacrilegium "Wicher" Gatefold vinyl 2LP (Bonustrack)

Black 2 x 12"LP in solid gatefold sleeve with insert.

• long awaited reissue of the classic, long sold out debut album from SACRILEGIUM!
• originally released in 1996 the album remains one of the most important and most influentaial recordings from Polish black metal scene, rightfully claimed its place among the best releases Poland ever unleashed
• damn obscure, epic and original melancholic pagan black metal!
• the new edition includes a remastered version of the original album with one bonus track, almost 11 minutes opus “Tam Gdzie Gasnie Dzien” originally released on split “Jesienne Szepty” in 1996

Blast From the Past series is a mini collection of albums reviews for LPs I remember seeing in the local record store when I was first being introduced to Black Metal around late '97/early '98. Either I listened to them and remember how excellent they were and still are today (Horna's "Hiidentorni" and Arckanum's "Kampen" for example) and/or are albums that I didn't give a chance but remembered long enough until finally sitting down and giving them a proper listen. Sacrilegium's "Wicher" is one of those I SHOULD have picked up when my electric eye first spotted a copy of it at the now defunct Woodpecker Records in days of youth and yore.
Sacrilegium is, for the lack of better terms, obscure. Just obscure. If you wanted to find a bonafied obscure metal band for whatever genre, Sacrilegium will fit the fucking bill. Unknown for the most part outside of Poland and I don't even know anyone who has even muttered a word of their existence, which is a bit of a tragedy because these guys could have competed with other black metal bands at the time, but again for whatever reason they just completely went nowhere. "Wicher" is a band that mixes pagan and symphonic black metal into something that sounds pretty damn original. Now don't let symphonic fool you. This is not symphonic as in Dimmu Borgir, but more akin to Limbonic Art. Already this is sounding excellent to my ears. Imagine the symphonic elements of Limbonic Art but mixed in with both old satanic-era and epic Viking/Folk eras of Bathory. There's also hints of "Ablaze"-era Darkthrone, so really it's a mixed bag of goodies. And they're all good. Nothing stupid here folks......but you know what, now that I think about it even more, this is really a more unorthodox style of what Satanic Warmaster plays! YES! I don't know if Werewolf of SW is a fan or has ever heard of these guys, but there are a LOT of similarities between to two.
The trio musicians performing know what they are doing musically. They are obviously past the amateur/demo stage and are now going down their own path, but while being good musicians and being able to deliver even better music, the production is not too good. Although you can hear singer/guitarist/keyboardist Succlagus fairly well, you really can't hear the drums or bass too good. Too drowned out. The drums sound like a live performance. Now this is where I am having trouble with. The sound production is very bland, I still like it and I don't know whether to see this as a negative. But seeing how some songs seem better mixed than others, that at least deducts 10 points. Need not fret, comrades.
The songs are all for the most part excellent, I really don't see any filler here what-so-ever. This is one of those albums where you can listen to all the way through and not get bored. Although the 12 minute epic "Wicher Falami Ognia" may drags on here and there, it's still good if you have the time to sit back and take in the majestic synths and ambience. "Spiew Kruków Czarnych Cieni" is my personal favorite. The keyboard-driven guitars mania is genius.
For 1996, this is pretty damn good. Unfortunately this album is extremely hard to track down seeing it's out of print. The best way to listen to this is on Youtube.com seeing how someone was kind enough to upload the entire album. Check it out, try to track it down, whatever. This album deserves to be in your collection.

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...