Izzy and the Black Trees – Kisses to Chaos
Release Date: 27th February 2026
Label: Antena Krzyku
Bandcamp
Genre: Post-Punk, Alternative Rock, Dark 80s.
FFO: Blondie, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, The Cure, Wolf Alice, Fontaines DC, Savages, Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Review By: Mark Waight
Hailing from the industrial city of Lodz in Poland, Izzy and the Black Trees very much use the warts-and-all vision of their hometown to heavily influence their music.
“Kisses to Chaos” incorporates transformation and decay, grime and beauty into dark and melodic alternative rock that perfectly matches their surroundings with intense musical brushstrokes that paint an immersive picture of the world in which they live.
Following on from their acclaimed 2022 debut, “Revolution Comes in Waves”, and their 2024 EP, “Go on, Test the System”, Izzy and the Black Trees’ latest offering, “Kisses to Chaos”, marks an evolution for the band by peering into the greyer edges of the human condition.
Slow and disturbing opener “Escape from the Liberty Cinema” is bleak, edgy and depressing, with haunting melancholy vocals helping lay out the gorgeously grim path before us.
Second track “This Land is Ours”, has an ultra-cool post-punk, dark 80s vibe that is sandwiched somewhere neatly between Blondie and Siouxsie Sioux. Next up, “Functional Freeze” continues in that same vein, and I am really beginning to like what I hear here, so let’s go!
Conjuring up images of huge brutalist concrete structures in a desolate wasteland, the Joy Division-esque “Post-apocalypse” has a superb Cold War-era riff that rolls back the passage of time to a time when nuclear war and mutually assured destruction were very much on the cards. There are definitely “Two Sides” to every story, and this song carefully reveals both to the listener with an upbeat, almost dance vibe hiding a much darker message.
Tres Bon track “Marseille” has as sharp a cutting blade to its delivery as old Madam Guillotine herself before the ice-cold heavy bass leaning “Butch Vig” raises your pulse rate by a few notches with terrifying and tantalising ease.
“Spring Time Rush” ups the intensity further to match your already racing heartbeat, picks you up and drops you headfirst into the unforgettable and uneasy “Restless Nights”, where a bit of punk attitude and an intoxicating melody kick you savagely hard! At this point the urge to dance or pogo around may be virtually impossible to resist.
Taking the foot off the gas and slowing things down a tad, “Endless Seas” bubbles along like a calm and gentle tidal flow with only the occasional angry wave breaking on the shoreline reminding you of the true power the ocean holds. The undercurrent of anger and hate then fully reveals itself in the final track, “Stalker”, which toys with your deeper, darker emotions and closes out the album in the same beautifully bleak manner that it began with.
Izzy and the Black Trees had occasionally been on my radar before I was asked to review “Kisses to Chaos”, and because I had always liked what I had heard, I jumped at the opportunity to check it out. I wasn’t disappointed either; “Kisses to Chaos” is a great album for all those who love the modern alternative rock and post-punk genres as well as those old codgers like me who love those retro dark 80s vibes.
Listening to Izzy and the Black Trees instantly took me back, if only for a short while, to the pubs and clubs I used to visit in that decade that seems so long ago now, and for that alone, I am very grateful.
Recommended!
(4 / 5)
