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SORCERY
Arrival At Six

Xtreem Music (2013)
Rating: 7.5/10

Whoa there! Swedish death metal just suddenly got heavier… if that was at all possible? Sorcery – not be confused with countless other bands of the same moniker – have been banging heads together since the mid 80s, as one can tell when you hear this festering sore of a record.

Surprisingly, the rather tamely titled Arrival At Six is only the second opus from this ferocious four-piece, coming more than 20 years after their grisly debut Bloodchilling Tales (1991).

The band still features original members Paul Johansson, who has been somewhat of a multi-instrumentalist in the band over the years, and vocalist Ola Malmström, who is very much from the L-G Petrov (Entombed) / Matti Kӓrki (Dismember) style of gravelled vocal spits. In 2011 drummer Steinfaust joined the band and more recently the band enlisted the talents of bassist Jacob Wiberg.

Now, those of you that have heard Sorcery’s debut will know that it was somewhat of a cult offering that never made the headway to compare to fellow countrymen Entombed or Dismember, but it’s great to see these guys have stuck to their guns, and what they’ve come up with is a frothing opus that shows Entrails how it’s done, and certainly, in parts, compares to the recent Grand Supreme Blood Court opus (Bow Down Before The Blood Court) for frenetic precision.

I’m guessing that after two demo tapes, which emerged in 2009 and 2012, these guys must have struggled to have gotten a record deal, but thank the lord below for this rotten sounding nine tracker. The record opens with the buzzing horrors of ‘We Who Walk Among The Dead’, a five-minute thrasher that has more in common with Slayer at their most chaotic than anything death metal. It’s a cauldron of flailing guitars, crashing drums and hoarse vocal rants which melt into the ominous twists of ‘Created From Darkness And Rage’, complete with simmering, chugging riffs and gothic drum booms before being punctured by a killer chord and cloudburst of speed.

The guitar tone of the album is distinctly Swedish but the band rarely labour, clearly making up for their long absence, and this is cemented by the crushing weight of ‘Master Of The Chains’ and the grey sweeping haze of ‘United Satanic Alliance’ with its tumbling drums and annihilating speed. Again, I refer to Ola Malmström’s vocals which are extremely venomous and leave a crust of phlegm over the speakers.

The band also has the uncanny ability to inject the pace with a dose of nauseous melody, especially a quarter of the way through ‘United Satanic Alliance’, which is probably the most varied of all the tracks with its pummelling drums and ever-changing guitar chords, leaving the listener in a heap of bones on the floor.

Although Arrival At Six is let down by a rather cheesy piece of cover art, it’s what’s inside that counts with this one. The title track is a behemoth of a number where Ola Malmström sounds like the demonic offspring of Motörhead’s Lemmy and Venom’s Cronos, but one must also give props to the juddering bass and mid-tempo slaughter of the percussion. And if you’re still unsure as to whether to part with your well-earned pennies, then just check out the punk ’n’ roll rattle of ‘Warbringer’, with its vintage structures and the brutal closer ‘Reborn Through Hate’, where Malmström barks, “I will dance on your fucking grave”… and he means it!

It’s only natural that the band has moved on since the murky days of the debut opus, but what they lack in gloomy originality they more than make up with energy. I guess anyone can call themselves a death metal band and puke out the same tired formula, but Sorcery, despite their shortcomings, have concocted a lethal potion that once again proves there is still life in some of the old, seemingly stagnant dogs yet.

Neil Arnold

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