Year: 2024
Label: Hammerheart Records / Metal Star (local edition)
Rating: 7 / 10
The Swedish band SARCASM is known to many listeners not so much for their music, but for the fact that they were part of the early Swedish Death Metal scene and recorded their debut album in 1994, but split up before they could release the record. That very album "Burial Dimensions" was eventually released many times in different versions, and the band was revived in 2015 and has already recorded 4 full-lengths. I didn't listen to any of these recordings, so "Mourninghoul" became my introduction to SARCASM.
On this album SARCASM play blackened Death Metal, which is quite common in their country. Technically, the Death Metal component is clearly oriented towards the southwestern (relative to Sweden) European countries, but it exists exclusively in the Swedish space of darkness along with NECROPHOBIC, DISSECTION, UNANIMATED and so on. The darkness is created by numerous arrangements, gloomy keyboard parts and all sorts of small elements. Just so you understand, there is nothing from classic Swedish Death Metal here. The vocals are high, hissing, snakelike. The guitar sound is completely German or American, and there are no punky rhytms at all. But there are plenty of blast beats, well-done dark solos and heavy, brutal slow riffs. The solo parts sound really great, it's the best thing on the album.
It seemed to me that SARCASM differ from their fellow artists primarily in that their music is based on Death Metal, not on disguised Heavy Metal, as is often the case with the Swedes. And that's why they are also more technical than all the similar groups that come to my mind. I would say that they don't really need all these dark elements. As for the songs, they are smooth and high-quality, nothing more. Nothing really outstanding. It's sad, but I didn't expect anything else. The whole album is the same: smooth and high-quality.
The physical edition from Metal Star has an 8-page booklet with all the lyrics and, as usual, a bonus sticker. Details on a video. You can order it at Possession.
English (UK) 
Крыўская