Extravagantly set scenes depicting chaos find substance in outsized treatment of mundane patternation: The grind of decaying pavement and dried brambles scraping underfoot on a cold morning, aged composite cracking loose from sidewalks as wheels spin atop their gravel flinging and rattling up against each chassis. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina-based black metal quintet IZROD are the trample of the beast and the whirr of their machines as they set their latest shortform barrage of surreal violence just beyond the dawn, finding dramatism in their own esoteric black metal envision of chaos and disorder as it warms unto derangement. At just about eighteen minutes the band’s latest mLP ‘Ulica, trnje i kamenje‘ is short but not without its own captivating qualities, be they wilding vocal expression or an ear for unsettling melody as their treatment of moderately avant-garde black metallic sounds continues its raw imaginative thread.

Izrod formed back in 2015 as a side-project from members of Void Prayer (who disbanded in 2022), eventually reforming as a successor to their flagship Black Plague Circle band circa 2020. Consider this invaginated growth’s arrival as lore for its twisted nature and namesake, a warning of their bizarre glom of noisome raw black metal capable of high-brained melodicism and dissonant harangue in the same phrase. When I’d encountered their debut album (‘Sarajevski Odisej‘, 2023), which I’d reviewed favorably, it’d been too compelling to set aside (as it was technically a reissue, or a later-on physical issue. Their style, then and now, masterfully parries and indulges the avant-garde tag depending on the rant or raving expression of any given piece. We shouldn’t assume a wild handed, elaborately struck vision from the Balkan Peninsula but… they’ve proven some extra kinship to the weirding side of things even if second-gen orthodox black metal is still partially to blame for their major codon count.

The deranged, laughed-out madness that wails and maws its way through opener “S & P” is unnerving, probably verging on annoyance for many per its “la la la la” puked vocal melody and wind-kicked push through. This level of maniac dizziness is echoed in the slightly more uniform closer, “Raskošan prizor opšteg rasula”, as their trampling hits and dissonant struck chords accentuate a free-wheeling hand applied to each of the three main pieces here. Though they briefly dare to cross the line into odd-touch blackened death metal and Voivod-esque transmutation of thrashing, industrial, and prog-metallic chaotic tensions there is yet a black metal centered simplicity to these not so simple pieces.

Of course the main show here is the crooked verve of the title track (“Ulica, trnje i kamenje“) where a kicking pace and gutturally flung vocals read as blood-thirsty, animalistic in their expression but commanding as if they’d dare on the edge of imposing esoteric early-days black/death metal. The melody at the heart of that song, which they immediately drive a la the best of Necrophobic, is masterfully struck with a horror to its call and eventual response (around ~5:25 minutes in) before the jazz-seeped stray aground exits the song, plays us out. This is an unlawful creep of an exit and one of Izrod‘s best moments as a freakish beast of ugliness, confrontation and somehow a certain shade of slinking avant-black beauty. It only briefly reaches the level of immersive estrangement found on the band’s debut but, then again it is brief release all the same.

We’ve gotten a healthy idea of what Izrod are all about within these four pieces, strange and fantastical responses to their own musings and inspiration which are all less than commonplace but fitting with a certain regional dialect of the avant-garde as prime placement for black metal idealism. Though I’ve my own concerns about the rehearsal quality feeling of the drum recordings taking from the presence of their work the overall effect is not marred by it. As an interstitial release guiding us toward their likely sophomore LP in the future this EP keeps the fires of interest stoked, not only for the profundity of its main single but the additional assurance that their debut LP wasn’t a fluke and they’ve somewhere of great interest to go with it. A moderately high recommendation.

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