adg211288 Ufonaut (2016) is the second album by Polish post-black metal act Entropia. Since the release of Vesper (2013) the band have parted ways with guitarist Michał Duda and replaced him with Kuba Cołta. On Ufonaut all band members have adopted single letter pseudonymous, spelling out the word 'ultra'. I'm unsure what the meaning behind that is though I'm sure there's a story there somewhere.

I can't see it being as interesting as the album itself though. With a sound that is best described as a meeting of black metal and sludge metal elements with a dose of progressive influence on the side, Entropia fit in a niche of acts that includes the likes of Cobalt and Vattnet Viskar (now just Vattnet). The vocals really sound more in line with sludge metal than the raspy growls of black metal and musically the album certainly gives off a massively different atmosphere to black metal's norm, but it still mostly fits that mould, delivering a riff driven, aggressive and even a bit technical approach to the genre, the latter of which is more unusual for black metal than other forms of extreme metal (notably death and thrash).

It's impressive as it stands and a recommended listen if that's the sort of thing you look for in the genre, but what puts Ufonaut up to the next level for me is the ideas that creep into the background, often in the form of melodies and keyboard parts, which bring a lot of different dimensions to the music. The kind of things that require a few listens to really realise, such as the eerily psychedelic sounds in Samsara or the oriental sounding Mandala. Things that allow each track to form its own identity and make Ufonaut such a compelling album.

I hadn't heard of Entropia before this release, but they've proved here that they're an impressive band and certainly Ufonaut is in my top ten albums for the year so far. And though I've chosen this point to review it, I'm still looking forward to it realising what further mastery the album may reveal with yet more listens – listens that I'm guaranteed to be having in the near future.