A deathcore version of a song from Winnie the Pooh sounds like something somebody might come up with after a few beers. Then you hear what Poznań musician Marcin Werner has actually done with “Słasice i Łonie“, and the idea starts making a surprising amount of sense. His solo project, Shallow Retrospection, has given the Polish version of Disney’s old Heffalumps and Woozles song a full metal treatment, with heavy guitars, screamed vocals and melodic parts from Jakub Chmielewski of IAMONE and Second Sun. It makes an impression straight away. We don’t come across many Polish projects working in this particular corner of deathcore, and it’s genuinely great to hear something this unusual done so well.
There’s also a whole album behind it. “Desperate Within”, Marcin’s second full-length, has been several years in the making and contains twelve songs, including three covers. Each of those covers belongs to a particular time in his life, beginning with the childhood cartoons he couldn’t stop watching, even when they frightened him.
“I’m not going to reveal the titles just yet, although you’ll find out what they are later this year,” Marcin tells IDIOTEQ. “Each of them is connected to a period of my life when they were important to me in some way. ‘Słasice i Łonie’ obviously represents my early childhood. The next song will be a cover of an artist whose concert was the very first one I ever attended. The third is connected to my university years, which I strongly associate with going out with friends and having carefree fun.”
The other two choices remain secret for now. Marcin selected all three from a much longer list he’d made some time ago, containing more than a dozen songs from films, video games and musicians with little connection to metal. He was curious about which ones could work with a guitar arrangement. He also enjoys the risk that comes with choosing something people might initially find ridiculous.
“I’ve always liked unconventional covers by metal bands. But there’s a very thin line between making one work and ending up with kitsch. I wanted to choose songs for covers, or references for my original songs, where the ideas would seem completely absurd on paper, but make absolute sense in the end. I think we managed that with ‘Słasice i Łonie’. When someone hears about a metal version of a song from Winnie the Pooh, they think: absurd! Then they play it and realise that the original song was already unbelievably dark.”
The original comes from Disney’s 1977 film “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh”, released in Poland as “Przygody Kubusia Puchatka“. The music was written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. The Polish lyrics, credited to Marek Robaczewski, describe strange creatures that steal honey, multiply, change colours and take almost any shape they want. They’re supposedly everywhere, and the song repeatedly warns the listener to watch out.
The scene is already quite bizarre in its original cartoon setting. Winnie the Pooh falls into a nightmare full of Heffalumps and Woozles, and the creatures appear in all sorts of impossible shapes and combinations. Marcin remembers being simultaneously terrified and fascinated by it.
“I’ve been very sentimental since I was a child. I always had favourite films, cartoons and songs that I’d go back to over and over again. It was the same with that part of Winnie the Pooh. Of course, as a kid, I was scared of it. The whole film is so positive, funny and moving, and then suddenly you get that scene. It was completely out there. But even so, I always waited for it and was completely drawn into it whenever I watched the film.”
For Shallow Retrospection, the song’s existing darkness gave him plenty to work with. The screams and heavier instrumentation push those old warnings about shape-shifting creatures into deathcore territory. Jakub’s sung parts retain some of the familiarity of the original melody, which makes the Polish lyrics particularly entertaining when placed alongside Marcin’s vocals.
The arrangement has a sense of humour, although Marcin thinks it can stand on its own as a metal song. Somebody unfamiliar with the original, especially somebody who doesn’t speak Polish, could easily take it as a fairly typical release within the genre.
Jakub recorded his parts with Marcin more than three years before the cover was finally released in September 2026. Like Marcin, he’d grown up watching Winnie the Pooh, so he knew the song before they even started working on the vocals.
“I recorded my part for this cover with Marcin over three years ago, so my memories of those feelings might not be particularly fresh, but despite all that time passing, I remember very well how much fun the experience was,” Jakub tells us. “I was a big Winnie the Pooh fan myself as a little kid, so it was a very nostalgic return to my childhood.”
“We had a lot of fun arranging the vocals with Marcin. Personally, I really value the creative freedom I felt while recording this cover. Adding the melodic vocals was pretty instinctive, because I remembered the original lines well and was curious how they’d sound alongside Marcin’s interpretation. In my opinion, the contrast between our voices nicely emphasised the contrast between the arrangement and the song we were covering.”
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By the time Jakub’s contribution finally reached listeners, Marcin had already spent years putting together the rest of “Desperate Within“. Shallow Retrospection has been his personal project since 2018, originally started around deathcore but gradually taking in symphonic arrangements, black metal influences and elements of hardcore.
He handles the vocals, guitars and bass himself, writes the orchestral arrangements and programs the drums. The debut album, “Mortals”, came out in 2019, mixed and mastered by Aurora Studio, with artwork by Beata Osztynowicz-Art.
Work on the second album began afterwards, although much of Marcin’s time was also taken up by Violent Answer, the Poznań nu-hardcore band in which he sings. They released three EPs during the period that “Desperate Within” was taking shape.
The two projects have very different writing routines. With Violent Answer, the members regularly discuss ideas together, and their artistic decisions come out of those conversations. When Marcin sits down to work on Shallow Retrospection, he can finish an entire song without having to run anything past anybody else.
“I tried to approach Shallow Retrospection without unnecessary overthinking. With Violent Answer, we always had brainstorming sessions, and every artistic decision was the result of all our opinions. There was none of that here. I created every song from A to Z. From intro to outro.”
A few of those songs have been sitting around for so long that he now has plenty of new ideas he’d probably approach differently. Still, hearing the older recordings again hasn’t made him want to go back and fix anything.
“Listening to these songs now, after such a long time since I wrote them, I’m simply happy they’re finally being released. I wouldn’t change a thing. At most, I’ve got loads of ideas in my head for new songs that will probably turn out completely different, but I have to hold myself back so I can concentrate on finishing the release of this album.”
The writing is also closely tied to the films, music, games and stories Marcin has carried with him over the years. Those references have been part of Shallow Retrospection from early on, and he enjoys taking an existing story and finding something of his own within it.
“Every one of the works I’ve brought up gave me an idea for my own interpretation. They’re so deeply rooted in me that I can safely say they shaped my personality over time. Because of that, whenever I take on a pop culture subject, I always leave a little piece of myself and my own related story on paper.”
“That’s exactly why the album has such a strong nostalgic feeling for me. I’m singing about things that bring back strong associations, but also things that played an important role in my development. Working with subjects like these was extremely rewarding for me. I had an enormous amount of fun making ‘Desperate Within’. I hope listeners will have just as much fun with these recordings.”
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There are plenty of other people involved in the record, despite Marcin being responsible for writing and recording the music. He wanted to invite a substantial number of guest vocalists, partly to bring different personalities into songs he’d made alone.
Every guest is somebody he already knows personally.
“Precisely because this is a one-person project, I wanted to invite as many guests as possible so that the finished release would be full of life. Every person I invite is a friend of mine. I haven’t invited a single stranger.”
The relationships behind the collaborations go back to different points in his time playing in Polish metal bands.
“Time Signed Our Deal“, scheduled for release on 30 October, features Asia Święczkowska from Warsaw nu-metal band .bHP. The two met in 2021 when Violent Answer played their first show in Warsaw, sharing the stage with .bHP. Asia was already familiar with Shallow Retrospection, and Marcin promised her a verse on a future recording.
When he eventually wrote “Time Signed Our Deal”, he knew from the beginning that he wanted her voice on it.
Another song, “Underground of Filth“, came together without a particular vocalist in mind. Marcin had been listening to “Bloodlines” by Vilis, a track recommended to him by his friend Grobel from Kaozm. It was one of the songs that influenced the instrumental he was writing.
Once he’d finished the music, bringing Grobel onto the recording seemed obvious. They already had the friendship and the connection to the song that had helped get the idea going.
“There were also songs where I wrote the instrumental without any idea of the vocals. That was the case with ‘Underground of Filth’. I was inspired by ‘Bloodlines’ by Vilis, among other things, which Grobel from Kaozm had recommended to me. After listening to what I’d created, I realised there was no other option than to invite my mate onto that track. He was a perfect fit, and there was a real story behind it too.”
“I could tell you something about every guest I’ve invited, and I think that’s fucking awesome.”
All those collaborations have taken time, as has the rather unusual release schedule Marcin eventually settled on. He wants to put out the twelve tracks individually, giving each one its own chance to be heard and discussed.
He didn’t plan that approach at the start of the album. It came from spending so long finishing the recording and then finding he couldn’t choose a particular favourite to concentrate on.
“Releasing the songs individually wasn’t something I planned from the beginning. The truth is that, because of how long it took me to finish this release, I started feeling the need to give special attention to every song. I couldn’t pick a single favourite. I wanted to give each of them the same amount of time for promotion and present my vision, inspirations and story to the world in the best possible way.”
He has also been making much of the accompanying visual content himself. Alongside his professional development and work with Violent Answer, his graphic design and editing skills have improved considerably, and he wanted to use those skills for Shallow Retrospection.
Marcin edited the video for “Słasice i Łonie”, which appeared alongside the single on 11 September. He’s preparing different visual presentations for other songs as well, although the amount of work involved has made him reconsider how many he can realistically finish.
“I already know that I won’t manage to make a video for every song because of the deadlines I’ve set myself and the amount of work it takes. But more than half of the songs will get their own unique video.”
“Desperate Within” was mixed and mastered by Paweł Olma, with artwork by Maciej Dobek. Beata Osztynowicz-Art also designed the Shallow Retrospection logo. The album is being released through Restoring Force Publishing, with “No Sea Can Tear Us Apart” having served as its first single.
“Słasice i Łonie” is the first Polish-language cover released under the Shallow Retrospection name, and both the recording and its accompanying video are available now. The album’s remaining songs will continue arriving individually, with Asia Święczkowska joining Marcin on “Time Signed Our Deal” on 30 October. The other two covers, connected to his first concert and his student days, are still to be revealed.
Shallow Retrospection on Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
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