Avant-garde music never fails to surprise in a myriad of ways. Sorgeldom were exposed to me through an accidental click of the mouse, transporting me to a thread about the band on a music forum I frequent. As my mouse was moving to the back button, their description caught my eye, so I decided to listen to a few samples of their music. This was when the band had not yet recorded their new album, yet I was still instantly impressed with what I was hearing. I contacted the them via the forum, but did not receive a reply for quite a while.
Fast forward a year or so and I get a message out of the blue saying that they have a new album out. I remembered the samples I had heard and was interested to hear what they had come up with. Checking out the new songs showed me that Sorgeldom had easily outdone the tracks I had heard some time ago and I quickly expressed interest in reviewing the album.
Sitting now with the CD in my player and the music in my ears, I can safely say that this is an album which – although not breaking any boundaries – sits among the best in experimental Black Metal.
Sorgeldom’s style sound can be tagged as ‘Progressive Thrash/Black Metal’, playing with the speed and power of Thrash, the atmosphere of BM and the long, intricate compositions and acoustic interludes of Progressive music.
The vocals flit between feral growls and a clean half-croon reminicent of Virus/Ved Buens Ende. They both fit the music well and don’t feel forced or overused.
The guitars are fuzzy and complex, creating a wall-of-sound while still displaying a level of virtuosity. Unfortunately the bass is rather inaudible for most of the album, so I can’t really comment on it.
The drums are well played, but suffer from the noisy production which actually compliments the guitars. Perhaps with a cleaner and less distant sound the percussion would not fit in as well with the rest of the mix, but I still feel like it could have done with better treatment.
Coming in at just under an hour, ‘Inner Receivings’ looks like hard work for the listener, but the band’s use of dynamics and subtle style changes leaves no dull moment in the whole run time. All of these elements make it very easy for me to recommend this release to anyone interested in high quality metal of any kind.
-Simon Brand
VITALS:
Release: 2010
Label: Nordvis Produktion
Avantgenre: Atmospheric Prog-Black
Duration: 59:34
Origin: Sweden
Official site: http://www.myspace.com/sorgeldom
Review online since: 02.06.2010 / 17:56:27
TRACKLIST:
01 – I Kloaken Lattar Vi Ankar
02 – The Cold Empty Void
03 – Vintern Var Hard
04 – Darskapens Karneval
05 – Summer Day
06 – Inner Receivings
07 – Drommarnas Galax
08 – I Vantan Pa Telefonsamtalet
09 – Dyk
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