Rolling Stone India Premiere: Polish Black Metallers Outre’s Haunting Debut ‘Ghost Chants’

(from left) Stawrogin, Damian Igielski, Marcin Radecki, Maciej Pelczar and Mateusz Jamróz   Photo: Courtesy of Dewar PR

To the lay metalhead, black metal in Poland probably starts and ends with the band Behemoth. But an album with the potential to be the year’s most memorable black metal releases this year comes from another Polish black metal band, Outre. The band, who started out as a one-man project of guitarist Damian Igielski in 2012, have released their first full-length album Ghost Chants, and it’s a turbulent record like any impressive black metal album.

Bassist Marcin L.th Radecki, who joined the band in 2014 and also took over writing lyrics for Ghost Chants, says the world will discover newer black metal from Poland now, especially since he feels Behemoth are “stepping further and further from this genre.” The bassist adds, “Black metal also evolves.”

Ghost Chants, which features the scream and growl of sessions vocalist Stawrogin in place of former vocalist Andrzej Nowak, is not just pure black metal. Listen to the seven-track album below to hear a varied album, drawing from sludge, death metal and heavy metal. Adds Radecki, “A lot of influences can be found in our music, however, this is still black metal. I think the strongest part of this album is its dense, massive sound and original arrangements. I still discover new things in guitar work and this is amazing considering the fact that we recorded this album together and I was present at the studio when Damian was recording his parts.”

With the lineup change and a sessions vocalist at the helm, Outre are going to miss out the chance to promote the album at summer festivals in the coming months. Radecki says, “Due to the delays in album production, we missed the chance to book summer festivals. But we are working on autumn dates, details will be announced as soon as we have them.”

Listen to Ghost Chants here