Sarcoptes | facebook | bandcamp |
Released on April 22, 2016 via Cimmerian Shade Recordings
Black metal has been going through some strange times. It seems more and more bands are trying new things and exploring new sounds. Sarcoptes‘ Songs and Dances of Death is not one of those albums. This album is straight forward symphonic mid-90s black metal. With lightning fast thrash riffs and a charging drum sounds.
The first song ‘The Veil of Disillusion’ really threw me off. I was expecting an extra spooky intro to set the mood and ambiance for the darkened sounds, which were going to assault my ears. However, Sarcoptes doesn’t mess around and just breaks into total demonic warfare. The tempo continues throughout the whole album, a true compilation of music to be the background to your Satanic subjugations.
This album is a pretty solid sound of what black metal sounds like and it is almost too conforming. I think of myself as a black metal fanatic, I have been listening to the genre since I was 15 years old. But the one thing I like about black metal is the rawness, the atmosphere, the overall dim emptiness, which some bands have and finding a sound or theme which is your own. This album is kind of like a main stream horror movie, yeah there is gore and blood. There is a creepy dude waiting to kill the hot blonde and her jock boyfriend…. but it’s too much following the formula, which has been done over and over.
Songs and Dances of Death, don’t get me wrong, is good, but I think it is just too generic. The drumming is phenomenal, the guitars have some pretty heavy riffs, and the vocals are on point. But to me it just sounds like a classic sound which is long past its prime.
