JOHANN WOLFGANG POZOJ — Birth of Pozoj (Trilogy Part 1) (review)

JOHANN WOLFGANG POZOJ — Birth of Pozoj (Trilogy Part 1) album cover

Album · 2011 · Black Metal

4/5 · 2011-04-30
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Birth of Pozoj was the debut album from Croatian black metal band Johann Wolfgang Pozoj. It was originally released independently by the band in 2007, but it has now been re-released in 2011 as a completely reworked and rerecorded version. Conceptually Birth of Pozoj is the first of a trilogy, and is followed by Escape of Pozoj and Return of Pozoj. The second album, Escape of Pozoj, was also released prior to this new version of Birth of Pozoj which actually makes this Johann Wolfgang Pozoj’s third studio album to date. The third part has never been released in any form but now that the band is signed to a label, the three parts are intended to be released year by year. But that’s enough on the history lesson; onto the music we go.

Birth of Pozoj 2011 only has two tracks, in contrast to the original 2007 version which had five. The total time of the album has been cut down a bit but these two tracks still total a time of almost an hour, being 33:57 and 20:51 in length respectively. I haven’t actually heard the band’s original take on Birth of Pozoj but maybe that’s for the best since I can write this review with a clear perspective, although I certainly have interest in hearing it after the event.

Now onto the music itself - for real this time. The band is, at their core, a black metal act, and they favour plenty of melody in their music, and while the music doesn’t really have what I’d call a really polished production job, it’s not exactly a raw black metal style either, creating a sound somewhere in between raw and polished that really fits the music perfectly. You can tell as well without even listening to them that they aren’t going to be run of the mill black metal just because of those lengthy track times.

Johann Wolfgang Pozoj has a strong avant-garde influence in their music, which is characterised by some atypical sounds and a fondness for experimentation. The end result isn’t actually the most ‘out there’ avant-garde fuelled metal I ever heard in terms of overall weirdness, but it does keep the album interesting as they band has some really good melodic ideas that you wouldn’t normally hear in a standard black metal album and it’s actually about eight minutes into the first of the two tracks before you’ll even begin to hear some of the black metal styled growls that hint at their extreme core. The vocals alternate between those growls and some cleans, which come across like some sort of ritual chanting at times, creating a good atmosphere for the parts of the record where they are used. The songs are done in a way that every so often it has a complete change in pace, which justices the long lengths, although there are also repetitions of ideas just to let you know you’re still on the same track. Despite the long track times and occasional repeating of sections (which is rare to be fair), the album never bores me. As a whole it is crafted especially well and it is immensely enjoyable.

One thing that I have especially liked about Birth of Pozoj is that even when the band starts getting heavy and the growls begin, their guitar riffs are not always typical black metal riffs, making the band sound pretty fresh, if not one hundred percent original. Other ideas included here are some ambient sounds which thrown a nice touch on the album for me. I have no favourite between the two tracks because they’re as good as each other, and due to the release being a concept album, they complement each other as well.

It took me a few listens to really take in Birth of Pozoj but I’m overall very pleased with this album, although for me it doesn’t quite make it into the masterpiece/classic album zone, though it only falls short by the smallest of margins. I expect that it will appeal to a wide range of metal fans and not just black or avant-garde metal. I can safely say that I can’t wait to hear the second instalment of this trilogy.