ALBUM REVIEW: Bajki O Staruchu – Thy Worshiper

Bajki O Staruchu is the fifth full-length record from the Polish-born, Dublin-based THY WORSHIPER and comes five years after the gargantuan Klechdy, which established the band as one of the most individualistic and unique bands in the pagan black folk metal scene. With a title that translates from Polish to “Fairy tales about an old man”, Bajki O Staruchu is a concept album comprising eight songs based on – you guessed it – fairy tales about a central character known only as “the Old Man”. But leave all your pre-conceived notions of fairy tales at the door, because this is far darker, more fantastical and more challenging than your typical fare.

Starting with eerie high-pitched drones and hair-raising whispers, it doesn’t take long for Straszno Tu to erupt into bone-rattling blast beats and some of the most chilling growled vocals on the scene. Shared between guitarists Marcin Gasiorowski and Dariusz Kubala, and percussionist Tomasz Grzesik, male vocals on this record alternate between gruff, barked growls, and anguish-ridden screams. Add in the vocal work of Monika Lubas and you have a smorgasbord of delivery styles, overlapping and accompanying one another to a ritualistic, almost hypnotic effect.

It’s that dichotomy between the screams, and the more muted whispers and clean singing from Lubas that gives Bajki O Staruchu its most interesting moments. Aniolkowi Nie Wierz flip-flops restlessly between the two and ultimately culminates in stunning drawn out hollers and machine-gun-fire layered chants that has something of a pop element to it – think BJÖRK collaborating with ORANSSI PAZUZU and you’re getting close to the ballpark that THY WORSHIPER frequent.

Cień is built around one of the most horrific sounds emitted from a human on record this year (LORNA SHORE eat your heart out) – it’s a gargled, clicking, gut-wrenching noise that sounds like it’s been plucked straight from the underworld. Underpinned by plucked guitar lines and harsh, hefty drums, it’s an early highpoint for the record. Album closer Mgła follows a similar structure and builds spectacularly to a black metal meltdown, before being stripped back down and fading to discordant synths that slow gradually to nothing. It’s a fantastic journey to end Bajki O Staruchu.

For all the excellence on show in the early climes of this record though, patterns do emerge, and it feels like the band are stuck in something of a loop. It’s as though they have found what really works for them and their identity, and then staunchly refused to move beyond this. There are worse problems to have, and they are fantastic at this pagan black folk metal, but across an album that spans almost an hour, you can feel as if you’re walking in your own footsteps.

And while for the majority of this record the layered vocals and the discordant, uneasy performance works in their favour and is executed sublimely, there are odd moments where this same characteristic comes off as clumsy and cumbersome. The final stages of O Kwiatku Na Grobie is a perfect example of trying to cram too much into the same sonic space, and it results in a genuine concern that a vocal track was to be removed in production, as the overlapping chatter of the voices clashes in a way that goes beyond being particularly listenable for too long.

While THY WORSHIPER have a lot of originality to their sound and individuality to their overall identity, Bajki O Staruchu ultimately falls into the trap of sounding alike throughout its 55-minute runtime. The ideas are interesting, but it would be great to see a bit more dynamism from a band that has been defining the scene for close to 30 years. A solid effort for sure, but they’ve proven before that they’re capable of more.

Rating: 7/10

Bajki O Staruchu is set for release on November 17th via Pagan Records.

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