Isceald – Zagubiony w bezkresie

Today, we once again delve into the depths of Polish Black Metal, one of the most prolific scenes of recent years. It’s a scene from which great bands have emerged, leaving us with impressive works of the genre.

This time, the inquisition process is for Isceald and their latest album, ‘Zagubiony w bezkresie’. The album has a very important peculiarity in terms of language. While their previous full-length was sung in English, on this one, they honor their mother tongue. The band once again trusted the prolific label Werewolf Promotion for this edition. Another point to highlight, taking advantage of the space in this review, is the activity of the label W.P. Among its various releases of “known” bands, it always releases some horde from the international underground. However, a high percentage of these editions are for bands from their home country.

Now, returning to what concerns the band, last year they released a statement saying they were splitting up on August 29th. The current album was released in March 2025, so we are faced with a posthumous work that closes the short but prolific career of this band. The album greets us with a long introduction of keyboards and atmosphere, which is well-combined and in harmony with the cover art. It gives the sensation of walking through frozen, forgotten places dominated by the dark thickness of forests and endless winters.

This atmosphere lasts until the eruption of the first guitars on ‘Wędrówka’. This track is an auditory delight, Black Metal in its atmospheric facet with suffocated melodies and a drum that goes at full speed. The Polish-sung voices give it a ritual depth, while the keyboards emerge like hugs in the darkness of the journey, spiritually absorbing the final three minutes. It is a great song chosen to show the sublime ferocity that the duo has released.

The track that gives the name to the work follows the same tone of the previous cold attack but with a prominent presence of synthesizers. Something I like is the game of dual guitars by Verih, who is also in charge of the keyboards. While the theme marches, the guitars have a duel to the death: one providing the rhythmic guide and the other doing what is closest to arpeggios that mix with the keyboards. This overflows into a beautiful composition as they change effects according to the nuance and sounds sublimated throughout the track. Halfway through, they stop the march, and the synthesizers subtly take power, displaying an atmosphere characteristic of the Dungeon art. The march resumes, repeating the patterns of the first half of the track until dying in the embrace of the fade-out, thus setting the table for another instrumental called ‘Dusze zimnego lasu’. This translates as ‘Cold Forest Spirits’, and I think it perfectly embodies its name. It has a great atmosphere between several layers of transcendental keyboards and teleporting effects that now strengthen the total weight of the dungeon in the work. It opens for the listener the jaws of immeasurable frozen abysses, with several nods to the first Mortiis. As expected, there is also a pinch of the old instrumental Burzum. The only thing missing were the voices calling for liberation from the clutches of existence and the uprising of the spirit towards the path that opened up in the introduction.

‘Przez zamieć’ follows the desolate line of attack and roars with the same ferocity and compositional elements already projected. The tremolo riffs sing a simple but effective tune that for any Black Metal ear will be memorable, above all for the feeling evoked by the guitars. This is further enhanced by the everlasting ambiance of the synthesizers that will extinguish all the instruments before the end, spreading a little more atmosphere before dying.

I wanted to translate the next song, which is ‘Last Snow’ (Ostatni śnieg). With that majestic entrance of the guitars, keyboards, and drums hammering the most characteristic rhythm of traditional Black Metal, they blew my mind. The song has that structure that makes your chest swell with pride at what you hear from the speakers. The most outstanding elements are the cold riffs that spread chills and carry a load of dark melancholy that at times reminds me of the old Osculum Infame, invoking the name of the track. As they already accustomed us to a couple of minutes ago, the keyboards take the leading role, and a synthesized storm adorns the closing. This is definitely my favorite song, as it is concatenated as if it were a subliminal chain with the dead notes of the guitars solemnly announcing the end.

It is a shame that a band like Isceald has dissolved because I think this album is very good. They brought together elements of Traditional Black Metal with notable musicalization and atmosphere, and that gloomy relent of the dungeon that has transformed over the years into a monstrous universe full of black holes. Here you can easily lose consciousness if you are not specialized in the subject. The cooling of the dungeons has served as a trigger, interlacing the tracks so that they do not lose their conceptual line.

Now, speaking strictly of the sound and the mix of the instruments, we have that the tracks sound even in terms of volume, one from the other, without perceptible differences. The only thing not perceptible is the bass. The drums and bass drums are at a lower volume with respect to the rest of the components of the drum kit. What does carry the torch of triumph is the triumvirate: guitars, keyboards, and vocals. But in general, I think that was the sound and mix desired by the group since it does not feel like the details or flaws were due to a lack of experience or technical expertise at the time of the final mix and mastering.

I hope that at some point, Algol and Verih make the decision to awaken the beast and free it from the chains that imprison it in the cold dungeons where it now lies dormant.