Entropia - Total

Angry Metal Guy

By my own admission, post-metal – especially where it crosses into sludge – is not my typical jam. So much is it not my jam that CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS on staff receive much hate for their love of sludge. But a favorable, if not effusive, word from the elusive but expressive Kronos is all I need to take a band seriously, and so it was with Poland’s Entropia. 2023 sees the release of their fourth full-length entitled Total, comprising just 5 tracks over 47 minutes. The band perceives Total as a totality of all they have attempted to achieve so far. How does the band compare with seeming influences like Isis and Neurosis?

Total has all the hallmarks of post-metal through its preoccupation with textures, layers, repetition, and length. But it has a few hallmarks of other genres too; for example, black metal through its intensity and shrieks, sludge through its abrasive feel, and progressive metal through its surprising technicality. The guitars and drums control the direction of the songs while the vocals take a back seat, offering scattered shrieks and barks. This all results in a sound that hardly relents across the record. The opening 17 minutes across “Retox” and “Mania” crackle with energy but are also heavy and alienating. “Orbit” converts a chunky tone to a stranger one, tinged with psychedelia and whimsy. “Total” fuses progressive dexterity with Entropia’s characteristic weight. Finally, “Final” offers a marginally breathier conclusion, dropping the pervasive distortion in favor of space between instruments. Aside from the comparatively relaxing finale, Total offers post-metal turned to 11, namely oppressive heaviness and density molded into 5 long tracks.

Entropia, therefore, require your attention in order to glean the most from their harsh, overbearing sound. However, by their nature of relentless, repetitive heaviness, as Total progresses it starts to slip into the background. Aside from the slivers of variety I’ve outlined above, the songwriting does little to recapture your ear. The songs don’t dramatically change within themselves, across tempo, tone, or instrumentation. Development is subtle, lacking the dramatic contrasts and dynamism that characterize other post-metal stalwarts. A median song duration of 8:36 is a lot to digest, while only the longest track (“Total”) benefits from a mid-song interlude. And this interlude highlights the critical value of breathers; it may not be the prettiest moment ever but it’s sufficiently warm and spacey to contrast the remainder’s heaviness and refocus your attention on what follows. When I reflect on Total at its conclusion, the majority of the music could be transplanted between songs without losing an awful lot.

Hindering the ability to ability to distinguish individual tracks is the production. Entropia favor a loud approach, brick-walling their master into something quite boxy. They’re admirably committed to their heavy wall with compacted layers of noise. But across much of the record, I can’t establish whether there are synths in the mix, or if it’s layers of guitar distortion, or if it’s just their limited mix and master which lack fidelity. Instrumental layers are smashed together in an imprecise manner. It feels like they try to prioritize all instruments, and in doing so prioritize none of them. Total’s production aggravates me because while the music here is intended to be uncomfortable, it’s uncomfortable on my ears and not my emotions.

Despite their attempts to diversify the core sludgy, post-metal sound, Entropia’s songs fail to stand out due to, firstly, songwriting which doesn’t do enough to alter tempo and tone, and, secondly, production which crushes the music into a small space. The differentiating elements are unable to stand out within these constraints. Although Total has some of the power of its sub-genre forebears, it has none of the novelty which leaves me questioning why I should particularly recommend Entropia above others. The answer is that I can’t, despite their immediate clout. Only those that love rolling around in the sludge will gain more here.



Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Agonia Records
Websites: entropia.pl | facebook.com/entropia
Releases Worldwide: March 17th, 2023

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