(Review borrowed from Metal Archives, written by Hierophant)

This is one of the best demo/albums to come out of Poland. What immediately grabs me about "Welowie" apart from other demos and albums is the guitar work. The first two songs have a similar structure of a clean guitar opening and then a dual guitar assault blazing through each track with intricate and actually somewhat calm chord changes. Their use of harmony is different from a lot of polish bands and black metal bands. They have some subtle leads harmonized in 3rds and 5ths mainly as well as some counterpoint melodies that catch your ear after a few listens. The third track is a very celtic feeling piece switching from ABAC structure to a second half common in traditional music of northern Europe. Tracks 4-7 seem to all just flow right into oblivion with a combination of different elements used in the first 2 tracks only faster and almost swedish sounding. The fifth song opens with a riff that could easily be mistaken for a lost riff off of Eucharist's "A Velvet Creation" only with a Gontyna Kry guitar tone. The bass is not as audible and somehow seems better that way. The last track is just haunting and unpredictable. It closes the album with the concept of ancestors and pride the same way it starts. Everyone complains about these drums. The drums are sloppy as hell but very fitting to the rawness of the recording. They sound like they were played from an electronic kit right into a board. I think peoples complaints about the drums are probably due to the fact that it sounds like the songs were recorded first (without drums) and not played along to a click track. Thus, adding drums to something not perfectly in time makes the drummer sound like he is lost. The drummer is certainly a good drummer by listening to other albums. But the overall feel of this album with everything said is something that will never be reproduced by any band. Gontyna Kry stand on their own as an elite class of black metal and "Welowie" should never be forgotten or passed up as anything less than essential.