OLS – Pustkowia (Blackened Polish Pagan Folk)
OLS can do no wrong, okay? I don’t mean that because I so rarely get any good folk, dark or otherwise, and am thus looking for anything close to good, but because she just does. It’s just an ultimate truth. OLS is the best. I was first paganly blessed by her last full-length for review, Widma, over two years ago. Seeing another in my inbox filled me with absolute longing for unification with my Slavic ancestors through the ancient mysticism her music evokes. And yay Pustkowia brings exactly that! Except now, a little more grim.
It’s difficult to fully explain the differences in sound in comparison to this and her previous work, but the simple explanation is to expect more darkness out of OLS this time around than tranquility. Pustkowia features more aggressive passages in several of the tracks, even including some blackened roars and shrieks, and when she’s taking a gentle approach, it comes in the form of misty melancholy instead of a vibrant, bright awakening as previously. This is a welcome difference from the last one, because any type of folk tends to sound exactly the same as it did and always will. OLS, however, proves here, and likely in the future, that she can vary her sound, keeping the pagan, Polish essence it has always possessed, yet pushing it into other directions.
Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls
OLS – Pustkowia
Pagan Records
Cover Art: Vječnost
5 / 5
