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SAMMATH
Godless Arrogance

Hammerheart (2014)
Rating: 7.5/10

Slashing, stabbing, hacking and cutting their way through the stereo speakers, the ferocious beast that is Sammath reaches album number five. It’s been five years since the destructive qualities of 2009’s Triumph In Hatred, but isn’t it wonderful to have this lethal Dutch bunch back, projecting vomit all over our ears?

It’s no real surprise that album opener ‘Shot In Mass’ is full of hate and hostility with machine gun drums, throat-ripping screeches and harsh guitars which may hint at a melody, but which for the most part are only there to snag on the skin and rip the soul to shreds. Yes, Sammath are ravenous black metal through and through, sent to feast on the living like a plague of the undead.

Fronted by Jan Kruitwagen – who also handles those horrid guitars – Sammath aren’t interested in entertainment. Instead, they rely on no frills yet awfully spiky black metal that drifts into that older Darkthrone style of wizened, despicable arrogance – daubed in frost as the likes of ‘Fear Upon Them’ just rattle, clatter and snipe with vicious intent.

Admittedly, there’s no real variety throughout Godless Arrogance; it’s merely an album that does exactly what it says on the tin, in that it’s hurtful and spiteful, evoking images of that black metal wave from the early 90s when this sort of stuff was considered quite scary. The likes of ‘Thrive In Arrogance’ and ‘Through Filth And The Remains Of Man’ are wretchedly straightforward numbers of speedy drums and claustrophobic licks which refuse to let us. Kruitwagen continues to swallow the razorblades throughout, his scratchy rasps almost existing as an extra instrument to this frosty, blood-spattered tundra of terror.

Yes, this album is barbaric noise that wades in tales of despair and loathing, oozing blackness and foul air from the rotten shores of ‘Death (Hunt Them Down)’ and the haunting arrogance of ‘Nineteen Corpses Hang In The Mist’, the pair both being as hate-filled and abrasive as the last. In fact, when the 36-or-so minutes are up on this vile record, you’ll find the silence almost deafening. Sammath have continued where they left off; sneering, snarling and mocking all about them with those icy blasts of percussive wind and Dark Funeral-type grimaces of anguish and arrogance.

There’s something so sparse about Godless Arrogance, mainly due to the fact that rarely does the sound deviate from its striking purpose to annihilate. Like all true black metal bands, Sammath express the negative via ferocious, yet stark guitars and drums which are tight and gnarly. This isn’t blackened rock ’n’ roll, but just good old fashioned nasty black metal which could be criticised for lacking depth, but it more than makes up for that with its wicked nature.

Neil Arnold

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