Year: 2026
Label: Zoharum
Polish Zoharum’s latest batch contained surprisingly two albums made with predominantly very traditional rock instruments. The first was Kontagion’s I (review); the second is this, Polish Jude’s seventh album. That’s the beauty with Zoharum: you never know what you’re in for.
More conventional instrumentation is not the only thing Jude and Kontagion share. Though the latter approaches music from a metal framework, and Jude from a more industrial/experimental framework, there are some musical parallels between the two.
I’d say two terms could describe that common ground: noise rock and Godflesh. I will elaborate, don’t you worry.
Zakaz’s sound is an extremely hostile, gruff and harsh style of curiously rough-hewn, blocky industrial rock. The album centers around a heavily distorted electric guitar, monotonously but powerfully pounding drums and aggressive, violent vocals that sound like a hardcore scream. The guitars don’t so much play riffs and melodies as provide a negative layer of electrified heavy distortion.
In this sense, and in the compositional approach, you can certainly sense the industrial elements. Even though Zakaz may be built with traditional instruments, what’s being built is industrial and/or experimental to the core. The album isn’t built of verse-chorus structures, but of almost static structures that are subtly deconstructed or shifted, until an abrupt change into a different structure takes place.
I remember reading somewhere how Godflesh never saw themselves as a metal or even necessarily a rock band. They just set out to make hostile, aggressive industrial music – and as if by accident happened upon a form of music that would be labelled as industrial metal.
I think Zakaz is cut from a similar cloth in some ways. To reiterate the above, this is aggressive, hostile industrial music made with conventional instruments. However, at the same time the end result comes surprisingly close to some forms of post-metal or post-doom: the creeping tempos counted by the monotonously pounding drums, the almost deconstructed slow riffs, the gruff shouted vocals. For people into certain forms of metal or sludge, this is probably rather approachable music.
The aforementioned noise rock edge comes from the jagged and clunky sound. It really ups the abrasiveness of the material. As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve used synonyms or almost-synonyms to aggressive and harsh to describe the sound. To me, there’s definitely a noise rock tint to how confrontational the it is.
And there you have it, I’d say: I feel I’ve pretty well explained the parallells I see between Kontagion and Jude. Of course, the two are more dissimilar than similar. There are none of Kontagion’s 90’s influences here; no alternative metal, no Faith No More and no melodies.
The end result is an album that might sound conventional on paper. I mean, it’s guitar, drums and vocals, right? And yet, it’s not. Zakaz’s unconventionality stems from its sheer uncompromising harshness. Not a harsh noise/power electronics kind of harshness; rather, the harshness of an iron discipline as expressed by the static, unrelenting barrage of drums, the commanding voice, and the heavy-handed way notes are forced, not plied out from the guitar.
And I like it. I like it a lot. Zakaz is an album with no standout tracks, but that doesn’t matter one iota. Zakaz’s rough-hewn, serrated and jagged hostility, ugly sound and iron attitude ensure the album in its entirety is memorable, even when individual tracks are not.
Only Death Is Real 