Review by Arek on December 21, 2021.

Scald is a Northern Irish band that I learned about thanks to my correspondence with Maciek. I will not hide that I am a longtime fan of his work from the times of Sirrah and TMT, and the work of qip resulted in a closer acquaintance. Coming back to the Regius I, which is the culprit of this review, Scald at the turn of 2020 and 2021 is the result of Maciek's ideas initiated by cooperation with Scald, but with a note of qip creativity. The album consists of 10 quite panoramic pieces leading the listener through the world created from the tightly twisted visions of the creators. I do not dare to explicitly indicate the musical genre Scald is currently in. It is definitely heavily based on metal, rock, industrial and death / doom progression.

Communing with the new face of Scald gives me great pleasure. It is like a feast with the works of Rudolf Giger, Beksiński or their film representations. However, it is extremely difficult to describe the nature of this album in words. It is very dependent on the listener's psyche and the vision it will evoke. Maciek has a great ability to create picture-making music, and his growls force rot even into the most beautifully flowering meadows. This is also the case here, when we hear seemingly gentle melodies, his voice and the dirty-dark mood of the album do not give hope for something divine. Musically, the album is firmly set south of heaven. Maybe we will not feel hell fires here, but their stench and what can crawl out of there, yes. The new face of Scald, although strongly rooted in the death / doom, so often sneaks into various other regions that putting a label on this album as well as this sub-genre would be a lie. Apart from Maciek's growls, we will hear various vocalizations of Pet. In addition to dense slow sections, we will encounter almost grind cannonades. In addition to typical metal guitars, we will hear electronic samples straight from rock and pop-electronic worlds. So, are you ready for this ambiguous musical play? For the timid or Orthodox - I do not recommend it. I recommend it to everyone else though, because this slightly stinking journey may turn out to be completely different than the one I experienced.

Looped in a multiplied adventure with over an hour's repertoire of Regius I must say that although I devote myself with great pleasure to this dark musical fairy tale, I am aware that the path taken by Scald will not bring them crowds of fans. However, looking at the whole story of this band, it was probably never their goal. I appreciate them for that. Despite the lack of mass applause, they still find the strength to resurrect and present their sick visions of this worm-infested world to their listeners. I do not want to press Regius I onto anyone like a marketing peddler, but if you want to travel through the dark corners of this sick and twisted post-apocalyptic world - I invite you. I myself will be waiting for the next installments of this trilogy.

Rating: 9.2 out of 10