Album Review: Weedpecker, V
Posted in Reviews on February 27th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Weedpecker by now are no strangers to lush soundscaping. In 2026, they stand as one of Europe’s foremost in progressive heavy psychedelia, the product of a mature and broadly respected Polish heavy underground, with an expansive style and a fanbase that continues to grow. Their fifth album, titled simply V, comes five years by the numbers (it was late 2021, so take that as you will) after IV: The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts (review here), which was duly encompassing, and once again sees founding guitarist, vocalist and keyboardist Piotr Dobry heading a partially-revamped lineup.
Tomasz Walczak (Tankograd, ex-Dopelord), who played drums last time, returns on synth alongside Piotr “Seru” Sadza (“Cheesy Dude” in Belzebong), while Piotr Kuks, who played with Dobry in the apparent side-project Atom Juice for last year’s self-titled debut (review here) takes up the bassist role and Zbigniew Promiński of Behemoth, Witchmaster and others steps in on drums.
Longtime associate and former member Bartłomiej “Bartek” Dobry adds guitar and continues his role as producer, working with Haldor Grünberg at Satanic Audio (who also mixed and mastered; Mikołaj Kiciak recorded the drums), and for those who’ve followed Weedpecker on the path they’ve laid out, the six-song/40-minute procession will feel familiar in tone and even more consistent in its purposeful exploration.
With marked flow within and between the songs, a clear two-sided LP structure, rampant melody and Mellotron-fueled etherealism, the band 13 years on from their self-titled debut (review here) still sound like they’re discovering fresh ground, but doing so with a maturity and a sense of intention that a newer band couldn’t have. That is to say, V offers both the sun-coated breadth of the view and the perspective to see it fr om, teaching patience with patience guided by a hand of mastery.
Side A establishes fluidity as a key component with deceptive efficiency. The two-minute “Intro” sets forth, fading in on a sustained and undulating synth line, almost a drone but moving, and is joined by more keys as a wash emerges. It becomes its own movement enough to be distinct from the subsequent “Fading Whispers” (which is also the longest inclusion at 11 minutes), but the two feel like a stage-ready complement just the same, and the guitar that enters to start “Fading Whispers” could hardly seem as serene without the lead-in it gets.
That’s part of what the “Intro” accomplishes, but not all of it. It is foremost a two-minute chillout; playing to transition from the headspace of the moment you just left to your experience of the album. It is the entryway, or if you prefer to think of it as going outside into sunlight and breathing fresh air, the quick contemplation carries that as well. “Fading Whispers,” then, becomes where Weedpecker first unfurl the fuller vision of V; the airy guitar strumming, the harmonized vocals, continued melodic backdrop of keys/synth, the drums distant but not so far off as to be lost in the mix, enhancing the sense of texture while subtly providing the ground beneath the rampant atmospherics.
“Fading Whispers” is not without its own introduction, and it does the work of building on the soothing mood of “Intro” in its opening minutes before shifting into a more tonally weighted (read: “heavier”) roll, full, stately and no less immersive than anything they’ve wrought to that point. The going is smooth and the mix is dynamic, and as vast as “Fading Whispers” gets, it never loses sight of its structure.
It could be an album unto itself, but the driftier “Ash” (9:10) answers, picking up from the comedown to close the (longer) first half of V, with long, pulled lead guitar notes over its initial strum and currents of distortion peaking through, reminiscent of the heft of “Fading Whispers,” but not relying on that as a crutch so much as a piece of the entirety of their presentation. When they lock into the central riff, the affect reminds of Elder, which isn’t at all the first time I’ve said that about Weedpecker but is true nonetheless, and what plays out over the nine minutes is a reverbed cascade of gorgeous tone and outreach. The later moments are more clear-eyed than the middle movement, but they not only payoff the build with due crunch, but do so, again, without departing from their purpose.
None of the songs on side B — “In the Dark We Shine” (4:27), “Mirrors” (6:16) or “The Last Summer of Youth” (7:14) — is long as either of side A’s non-intro cuts, but they flow together more directly and the Rhodes (I think) amid the acoustic/electric blend of “In the Dark We Shine” is worth whatever temporal tradeoff you might want to make. The acoustic solo just past the halfway mark is a shift, but not radically so, and the verse comes back around before a synthier finish leads into the stark and more immediate, heavier push at the start of the penultimate “Mirrors.”
Mellotron/keys again play a major part as they have all along, but while “Mirrors” comes gradually to hit more forcefully and, as it is wrapping up tears willfully into a standout (electric) guitar solo which gives over to the residual feedback that ends, the contrast of ‘now it’s pretty again’ as “The Last Summer of Youth” emits its nostalgic crux — string Mellotron sounds over acoustic guitar will do that — the transition isn’t exactly intuitive, but works because of the prior established scope.
The vocals aren’t whispered but give a breathy impression just the same, and seem to come from deeper in the mix of guitar. There is sitar for flourish and classic-psych vibing, and where the closer really triumphs is in the band’s ability to telegraph the fact that they’re about to get much heavier, then to do that and continue to hold to their path. It’s been the case throughout the entire album that they’ve demonstrated and preached patience through their songwriting, but the level of consciousness in V remains striking, and even as the lineup has shifted, Weedpecker has only grown more self-aware with time.
As to whether or not that holds them back, like anything, there are arguments to be made on either side. I would say that the strength of purpose laid out across V is a strength in their songwriting, and that the fact that they know what they’re doing and have an idea of where they want their sound to go — and that then those things are what happens in the material — are emblematic of the growth they’ve undertaken over the last decade-plus. V is often beautiful, while still unmistakably heavy, and it creates its own (better) world and organic warmth with poise and what sounds an awful lot like a will to keep searching. At properly loud volume, it is easy to feel surrounded by the music, and that is a lucky place to be.
Weedpecker, V (2026)
Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp
