Best of 2020

 6) Odraza - Rzeczom

What does it sound like to have someone screaming in your face, what does it feel like? Imagine the mist of spit landing on your cheek, the spike of adrenaline as you look into their severe eyes and sunken features. Your eardrums are overwhelmed, you feel the sudden urge to escape away because past events have taught you violence may be close at hand. This is what Odraza makes me feel when listening to Rzeczom. It reminds me of that one show years ago in Richmond in some forgotten dive bar. A hardcore band from Poland showed up to a crowd of 8 of us. The lead singer stepped off the stage and screamed his lyrics at us individually. It was difficult to remain in the same position and take it. It’s this level of intensity you’d expect from almost all heavy metal, but so often this alleged most extreme of music sounds anemic compared to these high water mark moments.

Odraza are two men who understand honesty and intensity. What they’re writing isn’t Black Metal that they’ve heard before, rather it’s their bleeding heart, their screams into the darkness. That it resembles Black Metal is just a happy coincidence, or an unhappy one depending on who’s listening. This is honest underground music that has no intention of causing fan-fare or making money. Odraza has made it clear they have no intention of touring this material. The album is available on bandcamp for a measly 7 euro. I doubt many will ever hear this album, but it is certainly one worth listening to. When a band chooses to write music because of the way they feel rather than how much they can make, it’s a reminder that not everything needs to be motivated by money. Some things can be pure, uncorrupt.