What we have here is a 1993-1998 retrospective, which combines selected songs from four of the band's demos. Sounds exciting? Well, not really. This is a useless release, unless of course you are one of those sociopathic, die-hard collectors. First of all, for people to care enough about their early works, Gontyna have to be a pretty important underground band, which they are not. Re-releasing demos or rehearsals of bands like Mayhem, Darkthrone etc. in CD format is understandable because of their status and impact on the scene. But this....how many people would actually want to hear it? Second, there isn't much to listen to here. Tracks from "Przebudzic ze Snu" (1994) and "Pusty Wieczor" (1995) rehearsal demos are exactly that: odds and scraps with non-existent production, terrible sound and very little musical merit. Excerpts from "Oblicza Prawd Zdradzonych Dla Krzyza" (1996) fare a little better but are nothing exciting either. Again, some "truer than true" black metal fans might find some sort of aesthetic value in these rehearsals or even apply the word "cult" to them, but there still exists a fine line between sounding raw and creating good music, and sounding like crap and creating crappy music. Gontyna Kry managed to achieve the former only with their 1997 demo "Welowie" (where the band's skeletal song structures, very raw yet spacious sound, and Burzum-style vocal workouts created an impressive atmosphere indeed), a couple of songs from which are the only worthy tracks on this CD.

Final verdict: grab Gontyna's "Welowie" CD and leave this one to the hardcore completists. (And if you are a hardcore completist, then I suppose you already own this anyway.)

© 2001 boris