More demoralised than wife-swapping Ordo Iuris members. More desperate than Marilyn Manson opening for Five Finger Death Punch. More eclectic than Zamilska opening for Furia. And, most notably, mad. Las Trumien, Sznur, Królówczana Smuga and Larmo are hitting the road.

Active since 2020, Las Trumien is a sludge metal gruop from Wroclaw and Katowice, featuring musicians from Mentor, O.D.R.A. and many other bands. They write about their sound themselves – dirty riffs, a rocking rhythm section, a lot of rubble and filthy lyrics about the most heinous acts of the human race. Since their inception, they have been associated with the Piranha Music label, which has so far released two of their EPs and two studio albums, the latest of which is 2023's Głód zabijania.

The black metal outfit Sznur was formed in 2018 in Walbrzych, a city with an atmosphere of post-industrial decay – and, as they say themselves, could probably only have been formed there. Sznur combines a raw sound with a clear aesthetic vision: on stage realized by hoods and cemetery sashes, on records by track titles such as Wieszak dla skóry (The Skin Hanger) or Likwidator rodziny (Family Removalist). They compare the climate of their music to "the sour stench of a hangover, when after a night of brushing with suicide you wake up and badmouth your mother". They currently have four albums to their credit; their latest is Ludzina, released in 2023 on Godz ov War.

Królowczana Smuga is a project brought to life by Adam Piętak, who, in an avant-garde fashion, seems to be continuing the legacy of Poland's pieśni dziadowskie, or vagabond song. His view of traditional culture focuses on issues of silent, inconvenient, lost or simply repressed memory—yet still inextricably close to the culture of his native Biłgoraj. The musical narration is led by deformed guitar sounds, reminiscent of old, dusty and neglected instruments found in great-grandfather's attic or unearthed from a hidden forest grave; distortion, feedback and preparation bring its sound closer to folk strings and percussion. Another strong presence is Piętak's voice, far from the white singing typical of Polish folklore, more akin to the screeches of a black metal frontman or an agonised vagabond. Królowczana Smuga has released seven albums, the most recent of which is 2024's Konwulsanki.

In Silesian, 'larmo' means as much as 'noise', 'ruckus' and 'alarm'. Miroslaw Matyasik, a musician active in the Silesian industrial scene since 1996, formerly active as C.H. District and associated with Requiem Records, under this name creates extreme music drawing from the industrial landscape of Upper Silesia, from powerful industrial pulses to cacophonic grindcore. His latest release is Alarm, released in May 2024.

Concerts in Katowice

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