ODRAZA is a Polish two man black metal band formed in 2009.  Their new album "Rzeczom," is their second full length; they also have a live album.  Their name translates into "disgust" and I would say that is a accurately fitting description group because "Rzeczom" is filthy, grimy black metal.  But it is also an album that steps outside the box and gives the listener one hell of a ride of insanity, making the album one of the more exciting and energetic black metal albums I've reviewed this year.

Rather than take a more traditional black metal approach and mold it to their liking, ODRAZA seem more like they are playing what they want, how they want, and without any one true form. It works for them because it keeps the edge of black metal around the songs but encased is adventurous extreme metal. The dual vocal attack, completely different from each other in style if not in tone, exemplifies the sort of chaotic yet open minded control the band has over black metal.

"Schadenfreude," opens with music box like notes before the distortion kicks in hard. ODRAZA doesn't stop there and keep the intensity pedal on the floor but throws in a clean passage that bridges into another violent outburst, showing the album certainly is afraid to mix up the status quo at a moments notice.  50 seconds or so into the song and it suddenly goes very lean and quiet-it come seemingly out of no where yet I know full well it belongs.

The title track, "Rzeczom," is next with low, heavy bass makes the guitars seem even more dangerous.  The riffs are choppy in places, starting and stopping to let other things happen in the song. i The vocals are barked out like a rabid dog, a threatening energy imbued into the musical fabric itself. The clean passage a little more halfway in is just the right amount of disturbing/creepy and doesn't ever lose sight of the reason why its there in the first place.

"...twoja rzecz tez," also begins with bass but is one is more melodic and splashy.  It grabs the drums early on and the two swirl together before a break hits around the one minute mark.  Here the riffs and bass kind of bounce around the dual vocals for a rhythm I might even call jaunty, which is a word I never thought I would use in black metal. The later half of the album is highlighted by "Najkrotsza z wiecznosci," an interesting but weird track that is made up of spoken word and sparse clean guitar melodies. The song amps up the distortion, which serves as a spring board of sorts for the vocals to bounce off of.

"Mlot na male miasta," has a lot in common with black metal of old featuring sinister riffs, bile covered vocals and what appears to be a more straightforward structure. However, the parts where the song drops all that for some cleaner pastures changes up the formula for yet another track that ends up being not all what is expected.

The final track, "Ja nie stad," really takes liberties with black metal by incorporating catchy rock style cadence and structures around the minute and a half mark.  Before that, clean guitar tones, almost like demonic elevator music lead us into the moment The later half of the song is more of a jam band style approach, where the whole band just sort of zones out on blistering black metal.  This is one of those tracks that looks weird on paper, it sounds weird been played, but manages to kick ass the entire time.

ODRAZA's "Rzeczom," is an unique black metal album that, at times, stretches the idea of what most people might assume the genre is all about.  Truth be told, with bands like ODRAZA, the sky is the limit on what the genre can accomplish.