Review by Alex on May 18, 2019.

Lost amidst the sea of black metal releases is Apatheia’s Konstelacja Dziur released in 2018 through Godz ov War Productions. This is the band’s first album launching them into the already crammed to the rim genre. This band of 3 plays a fiery style of militant and misanthropic black metal bringing to rise thoughts of Marduk with their landscapes and machine gun style blast beats. This is a record that implants feelings of agony and hardship by means of nihilistic lyricism and a strengthening guitar leads that have an overcast feeling of despair and urgency. Building in momentum as the record tramples along furiously, a shift in direction is always insinuated, thus widening the peripheral view of Apatheia’s musical outlook. 

“Odmętnia” is pretty much the blueprint of Konstelacja Dziur’s idea. Strong blast beats and passionate vocals branched by waves of tremolo riffs form a sonic collateral swarm of extreme metal. Each emotional element manifested is ushered by a fleet of blast beats; the drummer definitely has a thing for speed, that I can say, however technical ability also comes to front when factoring “Ślepe Oddanie”. A strong entry on the album that paints a conceptual image of inescapable demise, candid pessimism and depression. Manufacturing a mental portrait of a hamster running within a wheel, unconscious and blinded by the illusion of false hope, the common man in his state of ignorance and arrogance is met by the one true thing that is promised. Profound and thought-provoking lyrics greet the listener on each track, compelling him/her to look beyond the veil. In total adoration of how well Apatheia use the guitars to cast multiple feelings to the music whilst maintaining aggression through every beat, I find it impossible to not place Konstelacja Dziur alongside some of my favorite albums of the modern age such as "Exercises in Futility" and "To Those Who Glorified Death".

Konstelacja Dziur is a journey through many emotions, rich landscapes take hold of the atmosphere and changes frequently as though being in a world of seasons occurring at the same time. Although most songs range between four to six minutes I never noticed how time consuming the listening experience was, even on the ten-minute thrills of "Boże Ciało" and "Supernowa". I did notice the lack of variation occurring towards the end that put the record to a stand-still of sorts. This diverted from the movement created thanks to occasional switch in drumming tempos and more, so the guitar leads. However, for the majority, 51 minutes of Konstelacja Dziur went by relatively quickly. Songs like the opener “Odmętnia” to moments on “Raj” and “Zimna krew” ensured that your time would be worthwhile; plus, with the lyrics possessing so much depth, Konstelacja Dziur shun even more brightly. 

A good foot forwards this debut is, however I believe Apatheia is merely finding their comfort zone as I can hear there's potential for more expansive songwriting. I see Konstelacja Dziur as being an experiment of sorts, one that turned out well. There were some instances in which the album could have ended early, but I think Apatheia were simply testing their endurance with regards to how well they could sustain the courtesy of the listener. For their next record I would like more variation in the drumming and riffs. Their method of approach is good but could be ameliorated for better results.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Review by criscool623 on December 11, 2022.

I generally don't listen to Spanish-sung metal since only few of the bands really impress me. Most of them are more worried about writing super poetic and grandiloquent lyrics (which most of them end up being pretty corny) instead of polishing their sound and style, and this is a big problem for me since I am a native Spanish speaker, and most of the times the lyrics draw my attention more than the music itself due to how boring it gets to be sometimes. However, Azeroth surprised me this time, and what I listened to was something better than I expected.

Senderos Del Destino is a good collection of fast and epic power metal with a powerful voice (with is kind of harsh in some occasions, which gives the music a little pinch of aggressiveness), a good proportion of keyboard sounds (which give the album that sense of epicity) and melodies that are worthy of an international power metal band. The music feels inspired and not only concerned with writing too poetic lyrics. I have to confess that, even being a native Spanish speaker, I didn't really pay so much attention to what the lyrics said, but this is because of me since I don't really tend to take them into account when listening to music, so if you are like me, I suppose you´ll have no major problem when checking out the album.

Now, talking about the negative parts, the last (actual) track of the album ('Exiliado') is BORING AS HELL; that slow tempo and attempt of grandiloquence contrasts so negatively with the rest of the album that it feels like when you are eating a bag of crisps and suddenly come across a salty, burned and ashy crisp that leaves a horrible taste in your mouth. Seriously, this particular song stands out really negatively taking into account what we were listening to previously. Also, the mix of the album could have been better. If you are someone who appreciates a good mix where the vocals stand out, know that in some occasions the voice is buried and lost between the rest of the sound of the album and it's difficult to understand what is being sung (obviously if you know Spanish), and something similar happens with the solos, since they could have had more presence instead of being so low in the mix.

This album is kind of curious for me since despite of the bad things I mentioned in the beginning, in general I liked this record pretty much. I mean it's NOT the best power metal album of all, but it's a great effort and really good material for all the fans of this subgenre. It's fast (most of it), epic, has powerful vocals and delicious melodies to listen to. However and to conclude with this, there was not a song that I liked the most and stood out for me either. I mean, this is an album that I'd rather listen to entirely instead of listening to a particular song. It's just a matter of "Oh, I don't have a favorite song, but the album is good to listen to, so let's play it". Do you get me?

But well, listen to it and formulate your own conclusions. As for me, the album is good (better than the average of bands from Spanish speaking countries), but not further than that, but who knows? You may even become the next fan of this band, so give it a try.

Rating: 8 out of 10