TOŃ – Korzenie CD

“Korzenie” is a recently released debut full-length album by TOŃ, an outstanding Polish quintet based in Warsaw. Consisting of eight powerful compositions that will immediately grab your attention and refuse to let go even after the last song ends, this exceptional debut carries some of the best ideas and orchestrations you’ll hear in a while. The band already promoted this material with “Odwilż,” “Las, Głaz, Ćma,” “Niesława,” and “Wdech/Wydech,” four powerful tracks that vividly showcase all the songwriting, composing, arranging, and producing abilities of these highly talented musicians. Soundwise, TOŃ combines several different but complementary music genres to illustrate such a rich and luxurious ambiance. Perhaps post-rock comes to mind first, but you’ll notice how stoner, sludge, doom, and psychedelic rock found their way into this mesmerizing sonic equation. TOŃ merges all the vital sonic ingredients borrowed from these genres with precision and finesse, leaving no stone unturned while experimenting, combining, and composing their songs.

TOŃ is entirely dedicated to creating marvelous soundscapes decorated with many impressive vocal, sonic, and rhythmic maneuvers. Each composition arrives with a perfect structure, adorned with intricate segments and moving orchestrations. They seamlessly combine melody, harmony, heaviness, power, and aggression while simultaneously maintaining a cohesive sound that perfectly matches their skills, talent, experience, and knowledge. As soon as you press play, you’ll hear how TOŃ incorporates many psychedelic thematics onto a subtly raw and abrasive sonic background. These marvelously arranged soundscapes perfectly suit an outstanding vocal performance, which continuously commands attention and guides the listening apparatus throughout the entire material. These profoundly melodic vocal harmonies seamlessly balance low, mid, and high notes, decorating everything TOŃ tried to achieve with their music. In the meantime, the expertly constructed interplay between rhythm and lead guitar gradually shapes a fascinating sonic universe. You’ll notice how the immensely fuzzy, heavy, powerful riffs shine on one side while the other delivers catchy, engaging, memorable leads, themes, melodies, harmonies, and other sonic maneuvers. Of course, these melodious virtuosities depend on the mood, intention, or the situation. Every number carries a comprehensive collection of instrumentations that make this sonic journey enjoyable and memorable.

You’ll also notice how equally intricate, vividly hearable, warm-sounding basslines roar beneath all the guitar layers, providing more than necessary heftiness, clearness, and deepness. These cleverly arranged low-ends also bind all the instrumentation with drumming patterns, making this material a cohesive whole that never ceases to amaze. Of course, “Korzenie” wouldn’t sound this good without the excellent drumming performance. The experienced drummer contributed to this sonic output by providing an entire amalgam of wisely constructed and expertly performed beats, breaks, fills, and other acrobatics. These rhythmic structures keep the remainder of the band in line while dictating groove and tempo. Each band member plays a significant role in this sonic equation, making “Korzenie” such an enjoyable and memorable sonic experience worth revisiting again. It’s a marvelous album that combines some of the best post-rock, post-metal, stoner, doom, and sludge qualities into the finest piece of sonic artistry. You should check out “Korzenie” as soon as possible. The album is available on their Bandcamp page. Don’t miss it!