RSS Feed


SARKE
Aruagint

Indie Recordings (2013)
Rating: 8/10

Norwegian black thrashers Sarke are best known for featuring Darkthrone genius Nocturno Culto, and it’s no surprise that when you slap on the band’s third platter that it reeks of that old school metal stench. In fact, as soon as ‘Jaunt Of The Obsessed’ comes oozing into the room one can only marvel at the Hellhammer / Celtic Frost comparisons. Nocturno has always worn his influences on his sleeves, and the Tom G. Warrior-styled grunts and grizzled gurns give Sarke an extremely sinister and earthy sound that reverberates with doom.

Sarke’s new record boasts nine unhealthy tracks, beginning with the aforementioned ‘Jaunt Of The Obsessed’. The track features a cold, grey style of riffing, the sort you’d expect from one of those mid to late 90s Darkthrone records, and it would be fair to say that this quintet are not too far removed from the sound of Nocturno’s main job. Steinar Gundersen’s guitars remain dense and well-soiled, giving off a putrid air among occasional grateful moments.

This is nowhere more evident than on the stark, searching strains of ‘Jodau Aura’, a creeping, almost desperate echo of gloom that is thread by Asgeir Mickelson’s stern drum sound. Again though, the guitars emerge from the misty mire like a glistening sword, providing a peculiar jarring atmosphere as the drums rattle until we return to that foetid air.

‘Ugly’ resorts back to the crust punk Darkthrone yelps as Nocturno belches, “Cos’ I’m ugly… ugly as Hell”, over an oily Motörhead clank which melts into Celtic Frost-styled dankness.

Blackened doomy thrash is certainly “in” at the moment. Sarke have been getting stronger through each record, and I see this third opus as being the album that takes them to the top of the bleak mountain. It’d take a foolish man to scoff at the jerking groove of ‘Strange Pungent Odyssey’, which features such a catchy hook to accompany Sarke’s (aka Thomas Bergli) snarling words. It’s certainly one of the best cuts on the opus, mixing a bouncing melody with a Black Sabbath-inspired nod.

‘Walls Of Ru’ and the hypnotic ‘Salvation’ keep things at a steady level before the melancholic ‘Skeleton Sand’ and chugging fuzz of ‘Icon Usurper’ lead us to the closing judder of ‘Rabid Hunger’, which features a thudding drum and orgiastic guitar sound that twists between murky doom and wretched guffaw.

Aruagint is the arrogant, snarling and festering slab of doomy, dark metal I had hoped for, and with the bass of Sarke fluid and grimy throughout, the third album from this bunch of barbarians is one that should keep the sun at bay for quite a while.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share