Under the guidance of WolfKult, not to be confused with the label of the same name, the Czech project Isen released its debut album Zaklínání poslední zimy, or Summoning the Last Winter, in September. The record appeared via Northern Silence Productions, a label long known for its keen eye for atmospheric and melodic Black Metal.
In the relentless stream of releases that gets thrown at us week after week these days, it becomes increasingly difficult to truly stand out. Yet this album immediately managed to catch my attention, and initially not even because of the music itself, but because of the artwork. Minimalistic to the core, stripped of any unnecessary detail or ornamentation, and precisely because of that all the more powerful. The image radiates cold, silence, and a sense of inevitability, functioning as a visual gateway into the world Isen evokes musically. It’s the kind of cover that makes you pause for a moment, almost forcing you to give the album a chance, no small feat in an age of fleeting, distracted listening.
Without excessive embellishment or frills, Isen effortlessly pulls you into an icy cold expanse. The raw, unpolished production emphasizes the gritty nature of the music even further, placing you squarely in a desolate, frozen landscape where any sense of warmth or comfort seems absent. It is a bleak, inhospitable world from which escape feels impossible, and where the music doesn’t so much accompany you as relentlessly push you onward through snow, ice, and stillness.
Think back to the early nineties, when the genre was still in its infancy, sitting in its diapers by the hearth, slowly finding its form. Dissonant guitar riffs that sent shivers down your spine and rocked you to sleep with an uneasy feeling, as if something ominous was lurking in the shadows. Isen clearly draws from that primordial era of Black Metal, without lapsing into cheap nostalgia.
Tracks such as “Hromada kostí” and “Zima” perfectly capture the essence of the name Isen, Czech for ice. Icy, cutting riffs are paired with intense, weathered vocals that sound as though they are being summoned straight from a frozen void. The result is music that does not warm, but freezes, doing exactly what it promises.
This will certainly not be for everyone, especially not for listeners who swear by slick, clean productions and tightly polished mixes. But for those among you who seek rawness, filth, and discomfort, there is plenty to be found here.
Music ultimately revolves around emotion and feeling, and when that feeling is meant to be bitter, cold, or downright miserable, it cannot be conveyed with the help of a denoiser or an arsenal of fancy studio plugins. Isen understands this all too well and consciously allows the rough edges to remain, precisely where it hurts, and precisely where this kind of music is meant to live.
85/100
Isen:
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