Bednja – Doline Su Ostale Iza Nas (Dead Bird Blackened Hardcore)
Wow what is it with Transcending Obscurity Records hitting it out of the park recently? This is one of a few dead bird covers I’ve seen in recent promo emails, but Doline Su Ostale Iza Nas is the smashed avian object d’art I decided to review because Bednja might be the greatest thing to come out of Croatia in the past ten years. Post-hardcore is cool. Post-hardcore that’s so blackened it becomes its own new genre is even cooler. Dead bird makes it coolest. I know enough Polish and Russian to know the title of this debut is something like “Their Valleys are Behind Us,” but forget that linguistic drivel that proves I have a PhD, let’s get to the feathery-tainted crux.
Bednja were beloved as soon as I started Doline Su Ostale Iza Nas. Their riffs have the essence of old hardcore, but delivered in a depressed swoon that places the listener into a state of somberness only the best black metal bands can fashion yet…this isn’t black metal either. Bednja command an alchemically blended sound never content to rest entirely in either genre. Plus their Slavic-identity screams provide an air of strength only Slavs can reasonably command, calling you forth into a battle you’re not even aware is happening yet. Perhaps my only complaint is the album’s shortness, but this is quite typical of hardcore and stretching out their sound longer will require careful crafting best left for a second offering. Bednja no doubt has the ability, but for the moment this is the perfect introduction. Post-hardcore often likes to lament in shadows, but this is a different level of blackness; the kind that can crush birds into mildewed dust.
Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls
Bednja – Doline Su Ostale Iza Nas
Transcending Obscurity Records
4.4 / 5
