Cold, fast and raw Black Metal, the way it should be played. I could summarize the debut album by the Polish band ELIXIR OF DISTRESS with these words, but it wouldn’t be enough, because "Kontynent" offers us something more (both bad and good cues). We have here a 50 minutes full length for five long songs. It was originally recorded in 2013, but has required five more years for finishing the mixing and mastering sessions, seeing the light only in 2018 under the label Winterheart Music. "Kontynent" is a concept album dealing with the Gulag prisons, the infamous forced labour camp system active during the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. Each song lyrics are about a particular area of Siberia or Russian Far East, where convicts were imprisoned in remote penal colonies. An horrific subject matter that deserves a grim soundtrack and here ELIXIR OF DISTRESS do their best. The songs’ structure is pretty basic: fast Black Metal parts, alternated with slower ones, melodic and acoustic interludes. The fastest parts are reminiscent of early Norwegian bands and, obviously, of the first works by their fellow countrymen BEHEMOTH ("From The Pagan Vastlands", "Sventevith", "And The Forests Dream Eternally" era) and GRAVELAND’s "In The Glare Of Burning Churches". The tremolo picking guitar riffs are fuzzy and distorted, able to create a freezing and morbid atmosphere, while the drums are what you would expect from a typical raw Black Metal album: single foot blast beats played on an ultra ping ride sound, a non existent double bass, an audible snare, poor toms, trashy and dirty cymbals. The slowest parts are more in the way of modern Suicidal and Depressive Black Metal, not really my fave genre, but I must admit that it goes perfectly with the Gulag concept. The vocals deserve an extra point, because they are not average Black Metal screaming, but are very harsh and ferocious with an enjoyable martial feel. So, if you’re into primitive Black Metal inspired by historical facts and you can overlook the bad production and the very long tracks, give a chance to ELIXIR OF DISTRESS. More information here: tomhet.wm@gmail.com, www.elixirofdistress.pl