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Kromheim - "Kromheim EP" - Reviewed by Metallic Joe Saturday October 3 2020, 6:27 PM

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Kromheim - "Kromheim EP" - Reviewed by Metallic Joe

Every now and then, a project pops up that, while flawed, shows so much promise that you need to keep an eye on the band to see what else they're going to cook up on the horizon. Young Polish band Kromheim (which is really just one member, Mikołaj Popławski, playing everything) have a good amount of promise and show a great knack for songwriting in their Viking-drenched debut EP.

Despite one member playing everything, Kromheim sounds like a full, 5 piece band. Two guitar tracks, what may be keyboards (but could just be a layered guitar track, can't really tell), drums and bass, and vocals flair with a reminiscence of the project's influences. I'm hearing bits of Kalmah, Thyrfing, and Suidakra mixed into the songwriting, and third track Revenge even features some very impressive guitar work sprinkled throughout. I must also add the impressive mix for a project I can imagine was entirely self-produced. Really sets the bar for what one person can accomplish behind a computer.

Popławski's songwriting does go a few different directions, with the very Finnish-sounding Revenge mixing with the epic Storm of the Gods, with full on storm-raging songwriting and a very nice piano interlude towards the end that finishes in an bombastic outro, slowly fading back into soft piano before the audio waves dissipate entirely.

If I had to pick a weak point of the album, it's the vocals. Popławski has a decent enough growl, but it does get very monotonous and the songs could definitely benefit from a more higher-rasp delivery in some parts. He does break up vocal stylings a tad, but Prayer could have definitely used more of that. I do feel I'm nit-picking at this point, however, because this is far from a fatal flaw in the overall work. As it stands, this EP is a rather enjoyable taste of what might be to come from this gifted songwriter, and I'll be keeping tabs on his work for sure!

-Metallic Joe

FFO: Amon Amarth, Kalmah, Dark Tranquillity, Hypocrisy

Kromheim is a melodic death metal solo project from Poland with Viking/Folk influences.

Established in 2020, Kromheim draws its influences mostly from bands such as Hypocrisy , Kalmah , Amon Amarth , Dark Tranquillity all the way to Dissection .

The Kromheim EP features 4 songs with different dynamics. The 2020 Covid-19 lockdown seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally record and release this music to the world.