The forest is not a neutral place in Slavic tradition. It is where things are lost, where things hide, where the boundary between the human world and something older grows thin. Wrocław’s GOZD — the word means “forest” in several South Slavic languages — clearly understand this, and Trees Are Silent, their third album, draws on this mythological weight without ever becoming heavy-handed about it.
This is instrumental post-metal that earns the “atmospheric” tag through patience rather than bombast. GOZD aren’t in a hurry. The album opens slowly, layers building like fog between trees, and tracks like “Rusalka” — named for the water spirits of Slavic folklore — carry that mythic weight in pure sound, no lyrics needed. The absence of vocals is itself a compositional choice: the music speaks in texture and density, not words.
There are moments of genuine heaviness here. “Abiogenesis” leans into its riffs with conviction, the guitar buried in distortion while the rhythm section holds everything down with the kind of low-end gravity that you feel before you hear it. But the record breathes too — “Ekoton” opens up, the drive loosening into something more contemplative, and the contrast between these modes is what gives the album its structure and staying power.
The record shifts gears across its runtime: “Birch” drives hard — the kind of tempo that keeps the pressure on without going full sprint, while “Ekoton” locks into a steady groove — mid-paced, head-nodding, nothing rushed — the contrast keeps it from feeling like one long undifferentiated push. Tonally there’s more range than the genre usually allows: the guitar work sits deep in the distortion — riffs are felt as much as heard, individual notes dissolving into a dense, saturated mass, whereas the guitar work is cleaner than you might expect — the drive is there but the notes breathe, which gives the record more definition than most in the genre. The bass weight is a constant throughout — a heavy foundation that keeps everything anchored and gives the record its physical quality. The mix is sealed tight — almost no shimmer or air in the upper register, which gives everything that suffocating, close-quarters density.
Standout tracks: Axis Mundi, Rusalka, The Oath Taken Beneath The Oak Tree
Trees Are Silent is a record that rewards the kind of listening you do alone, late, with headphones on. It’s not asking for your attention so much as your presence. GOZD have made something genuinely immersive here — unhurried, heavy when it needs to be, and suffused with the kind of atmosphere that lingers well after the last note fades.