| Slavic Blasphemy (CD) | 1997 | Total Zero |
I have rarely encountered and album this scary! This is the stuff that nightmares are made of, a soundtrack of a horror movie too sick to actually be shown. Haunting miserable sounds are twisted around in such a way that I lack the words to describe this myself. As such I am forced to fall back on the dead on description the band themselves give: "Brutal Experimental Symphonic Industrial Doom Death Metal".
Especially the mixture of Industrial with Doom creates a claustrophobic atmosphere that has me gasping for air. No, this has not been made by human beings, this simply is too unholy.
If you feel your up to the challenge the band has made the entire album available from http://www.mp3s.com/zaraza/ or you can buy the album directly from them for a mere $3!! (check their homepage for further details) These cheap prices once more proving my point that Zaraza are evil nightmarish creatures out for world domination!
1. 24 Hours
2. Zakazany
3. Every Day Is A Funeral
4. Necessary
5. Cell Of Skin
6. Zaraza
Approx. 65 minutes
| No Paradise To Lose (CD) | 2003 | Total Zero |
Apparently due to the fact that mastermind Jacek was not quite happy with the mix, the album was plagued by delay after delay before being finally released. The work put into this album however clearly shows. If compared to its predecessor the steps forwards are tremendous. The song structures and overall musical compositions are better, and if at all possible it is even more blood chilling and haunting then their debut album 'Slavic Blasphemy'. Their music is simply too disturbing to have been made by human beings.
They again succeeded perfectly in setting a claustrophobic, sick, twisted and utterly dark atmosphere. Their particular mixture of Industrial sounds with Doom-metal still make Zaraza one of the most unique bands out there. To start to understand how they sound imagine an unholy marriage between bands as diverse as Skinny Puppy, Velvet Acid Christ, Winter, Laibach, Thergothon, Skepticism, Morbid Angel and Bolt Thrower.
Zaraza's music invokes visions of a dark twisted future, cruel dictatorships, failed human experiments, the image of a thousand black boots of demonic solders marching in line, morbid blood rituals and human enslavement. A dark, horror and science fiction-like feeling creeps up on you. Lyrically we are, among other things, told about how there is no saviour, no hope, no God. Cold science teaching us we are hopeless and destined to live our lives in misery.
The Laibach cover of 'Nova Akropola' fits in perfectly with this concept and also provides Zaraza with an opportunity to pay their respect to a band that has been a major influence for them. This is further enhanced by the limited edition CD-r 'Montrealska Akropola, a Tribute to Laibach'. This CD-r was added as a bonus for the early buyers of the album. Looking at their website now, it seems this offer is unfortunately no longer valid. The quality of this CD-r is a little less then of the main album, but also blood chilling and haunting. So overall everything I've said so far about 'No Paradise to lose' also applies to the bonus disk.
Overall 'No Paradise to Lose' is one of the highest quality releases of the last year. Exceptional, home-grown (!), production (due to the fact that both Zaraza members are audiophiles), blood chilling music with many hidden layers to discover (this really is headphone music) and packaged in a DVD case, Zaraza offers you great quality of your hard earned cash.
Despite my praise, I do not think that Zaraza is for every metal-head due to the high industrial injection into their music. This is not your standard Doom-METAL band; no many treaded paths are walked. For the traditional-minded metal listener it might pose a bit too much of a shock to digest. If you prefer your metal... METAL then you at the very least should listen before buying; however if you are a bit more open-minded and you are looking for music to give you the creeps and cause some serious nightmares, then rush off to their website to order your copy today!
Reviewed by: Aldo Quispel
Zaraza, meaning a parasite in some Slavic languages (in Polish maybe, in Russian for sure), is more than anything a Laibach worship, worshipping, worshippers… They do not try to hide the fact, for they have incorporated a Laibach cover song 'Nova Acropola' into they new, second album, as well as added a 4-song Laibach tribute CD-R as an additive to the DVD-packaged new album, 'No Paradise to Lose'. For this fact, Zaraza cannot be immediately recognized as a doom metal par excellence outfit, nor a metal band altogether... And I fucking like it, just because of that. You see, you can be Satanic even outside the black metal circles (mostly jokes-for-bands there…) you can be Satanic, you can write good God-denying music, in an intelligent fashion, summoning the metallic voice of Steven Hawking to aid you proving your point ('the universe is self-contained and without a creator'...).
Zaraza are cold, so fucking cold and emotionless, that a human heart can freeze if listening to this music without a warning. Being cold is cool (literally) but what I like about this second album of those Polish-Canadian immigrants is that their music's industrial tinge is really of an industrial origin, a true industrial essence. The music contains true industry, i.e., metal pipes being hammered, some mechanic sounds, some other factory-related sounds, sad, annoying, non-human sounds of decay, burden, suffering and hopelessness as if we all are only cannon-fodder for the daily grind of this over-technological, over-mechanized era, where people are only economic pawns that are destined to produce and manufacture, for the benefit of a greater scheme, of which they are not familiar with. As if Einsturzende Neubauten had joined with Skin Chamber, and spawned some bastard child whose uncle is the above mentioned Laibach, and whose relatives are any wretched feeling, deed or wrong-doing known to mankind…
Zaraza are the new age prophets in more than one sense; They have created a new musical dimension, which is an upgrade of all that is fearsome is doom metal, coupled with anything which a really disturbing electronic music can be: cold, repetitive, industrial death it is, not as in death metal (what is so deadly is death metal I do not know…) but dead music, lifeless and foreboding, but so much powerful and dynamic, a fact that overshadows the monotony of it all. In all my long time experience with what ever kind of musical expression, mainly in the metal underground and the industrial/electronics realm, never have I encountered such a unique musical entity, that manifests almost perfectly (only God is perfect, yes?) everything which I, personally love about heavy, obscure - and to some extent - prophetic music. If only for the originality factor, this album gets my highest praise, but it contains so much more than just that. Although I own also Zaraza's debut album 'Slavic blasphemy', I wish not make any sorts of comparisons here, first, because I am not so much familiar with the debut, and second, because I think this album deserves to be judged upon its own, if only for the fact it has truly caught my attention in these crowded times when albums are being mindlessly released in an increasing rate, albums which are faceless, nameless and those which are time and again fail to catch my attention for more than a single listen. Zaraza are a highly intelligent duo of musicians, creating an insane, heavy-as-fuck, super-human musical experience, slow, mysterious , ultra-bleak and disturbing to the hilt. This album comes as highly recommended, as this is, my friends, fucking industrial doom (and much more).
Reviewed by: Chaim Drishner
1. Possessed by Skepticism
2. Nova Akropola
3. Mark of the Infidel
4. Infliction
5. Planetary Re-Intall
6. Znikad Donikad
7. Prezklinaj Smierc
8. Heart.o.v.the.goat
Approx. 49 minutes
Bonus CD-r for early buyers:
Montrealska Akropola - a Tribute to Laibach
1. Leben Tod
2. Krvava Gruda, Plodna Zemlja
3. Nova Akropola
4. Nova Akropola (Live '95)