MYSTHICON – Bieśń

Self released, September 2025

Music: Black Metal, Atmospheric Black Metal

Website:

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Duration: 41:58 (6 tracks)

Country: Poland

It is common knowledge that black metal is in the revival phase already for quite a few years. It is also valid for the Polish grounds as there are a lot of bands that started recently and are doing better and better as well as the widely known names that are penetrating new creative fields in the area of the blackest music. MYSTHICON might be still placed in the first group as “Bieśń” is their second album, but the content of the CD sounds very promising.

The opening song called “Shapes” starts with slow piano and whispers, but it soon unleashes into pure aggression accompanied with some orchestrations. The first track as well as all other songs on the album are over six minutes and none of them is one layered, full speed black metal. Each one has some twists and turns which is definitely an advantage. MYSTHICON juggles with slow and fast tempos fluently and we can hear that they are confident in that. Second song called “Unbearable Silence” is the best example of their craft of joining extreme ends of musical expression. It has doomy atmosphere most of the time which nicely contrasts with a phase of blast beats in the middle of the song. The singer Adrian presents the versatility of his voice ranging from calm and clean vocals to various styles of growling.

Other tracks are in similar style, but they all definitely do not sound boring or repetitive. Each one has creative ideas and what also matters they sound crushing. Of course, there are some conventional motifs used in black metal like the slow and melodic guitars in the background of the only Polish song “Na Naszej Krwi”. At the same time, the drums stand out in that song. The player uses some tasty breakdowns and I am sure that when the band will finally start to play live soon that song will make a great impression on stage. He actually does not overuse blast beats throughout the album, but he plays the instrument like a tool for making the songs more energetic.

Grzegorz Kapłon, who is the founder and the main chief of the band, was also a crucial member of LUX OCCULTA on their first two albums in mid 90s. The band played an important role in the development of black metal of that time in Poland. Grzegorz decided to rerecord their song “Creation” which was released on their first demo called “The Forgotten Arts”. This is more like a refreshed version with better sounding instruments and some little upgrades here and there.

MYSTHICON cannot be labelled purely as black metal band, because they surely go beyond that and in my opinion it is a strong side of this band. I keep my fingers crossed for next releases which I hope will be at least as good as this one.

Tracklist:
Shapes
Unbearable Silence
We Are The Worms
Na Naszej Krwi
The Storyteller
Creation (LUX OCCULTA cover)

Line-up:
Adrian Mięsowicz – vocals
Grzegorz Kapłon – guitars
Szymon Hadała – guitars
Mateusz Zawada – bass
Tharthaq – synths
Andrzej Citko– drums

Rate: 7/10