Varmia has always operated at the intersection of black metal and something far older—something rooted in land, language, and lineage. Across their catalog, the Polish collective has steadily refined a sound that feels less like genre exercise and more like invocation. On their latest full-length, lauks, that approach reaches a new level of intensity. Set for release March 27 via M-Theory Audio, lauks finds the band doubling down on their fusion of black metal’s ferocity with the ceremonial weight of Baltic ritual music. Recorded live within the crumbling walls of a ruined castle, the album captures not just performance, but place—each strike, chant, and resonance carrying the imprint of the space itself.
From its opening moments, lauks feels immediate and unvarnished—raw in a way that avoids sloppiness, instead channeling a deliberate, almost elemental force. Harsh, incantatory vocals dominate, delivered in the band’s native Polish, while moments of “whitevoice” clean singing cut through like ritual calls echoing across centuries. The interplay creates a constant tension between violence and reverence.
Instrumentally, Varmia expands that tension further. Alongside the expected battery of black metal, the band incorporates traditional instrumentation tied to the Baltic rites—tagelharpa, goat horn, wood tuba, and krivula—layered not as ornamentation, but as structural pillars of the sound. The result lands somewhere between the spiritual weight of Wardruna and the storm-driven force of early Enslaved or Satyricon, while still feeling distinctly their own.
“This album is the quintessence of our understanding of natural, raw intensity, teetering on the verge of chaos,” explains composer Lasota. “As always, we recorded it live – this time among the ruins of one of the many castles still standing on our land. Within its empty, derelict halls, we discovered a new dimension of musical naturalism. The aura of the place is embedded into the sound, reverberating through the slower hits of the instruments.”
The title itself carries equal weight. “The title ‘lauks’ refers to the way our ancestors coexisted in groups of communes or settlements,” Lasota continues. “In the context of this album, it signifies identity, territorial instinct, and the sharp line between us and them.” That sense of boundary—between past and present, ritual and performance, chaos and control—runs through lauks in full. It’s not just an album that draws from history; it feels like it’s been pulled through it.
lauks is out March 27 via M-Theory Audio. You can pre-order it here, and hear the full stream below.
