Cień - Time of Anti-Humanity

CIEŃ - Time of Anti-Humanity (OLD TEMPLE CD 2015)

I was quite curious about this CD. I know Cień from their very good “Time of Desolation” demo, as well as from “Ecce Homo” album. But I never had a chance to hear their debut release “Anti Humanity” from 2010, which I was quite interested to hear since I was told it is quite raw and harsh sounding black metal. This CD called “Time of Anti-Humanity” and released on Old Temple, brings both Cień demos, so you can now see how this band evolved since their first release through the second demo and then compare it with “Ecce Homo”. Why not, right?

So, about “Time of Desolation” I don’t wanna write much, since I had already reviewed this demo twice before. But let me just say it’s damn good stuff, in my opinion, with some truly excellent, but also varied, interesting compositions. Cień sounds here like a band which knows the origins of the genre, but combines them with something more original and uncommon, mainly fusing it with some depressive, atmospheric parts. The result is splendid, with such songs like “Where Is Your God?”, “The Clock”. Yeah, definitely it’s great demo and I tend to come back to it quite often.

As for “Anti Humanity”, one thing is true; this demo sounds harsher and more primitive than the later stuff. But to be honest, I don’t like it so much. Sure, there are some decent moments, like the first and second song, with some fast and slow paced raw black metal. But there are some other parts of this demo, which annoy me with those sort of melancholic, not so good riffs, with some insanely weak clean vocals or other such stuff. There’s just nothing on this demo, what I would really enjoy. Obviously I realize every band has to start somewhere and to some point I can also admit that Cień already on their debut wanted to sound a bit different than majority of other black metal bands. But it doesn’t work for me and I prefer their later recordings much more.

I still recommend this CD, so you can listen to “Time of Desolation” demo. This one gets 80/100 easily, while “Anti Humanity” no more than 50/100.

Final rate: 65/100