Review: Sørgelig – Φθορά
Sørgelig – Φθορά
Tragedy Productions
Release Date: October 4th 2024
When I receive a promo, I have to work out whether I’ll play a track on a radio show, maybe review the album… or bin it
It was quite an easy decision to make with this album. There was no way on earth I would be able to pronounce the album title, never mind some of the song titles and indeed all of the band members name… so review it is.
For those of you not familiar with the band, Sørgelig are a Greek Black Metal band and amongst their ranks are 3 members of Isolert. And if you are a fan of 90s Black Metal, I think you’ll really like this album.
Now, in my head I was going to explain that this sounds like a 90s sounding album, but with big beefy production. The bass rattle through the middle of the mix, the drums have no connection with biscuit tins and no wasps in jars were harmed in the creation of the guitar sound.
But then I realised that back in the 90s, before I moved onto getting separates, my main listening device was an old JVC “all in one” stereo that I got back in 1988. These days I have 400 watts of power on my computer set-up… so of course it sounds better that it would back in the 90s.
So ignore most of what I’ve said so far, bar the bit about this being a wonderful slice of 90s influenced Black Metal. Libation of Blood has a cool as hell death grunt, whilst the unpronounceable third track, Αποσύνθεση, has the most majestic of riffs gliding above the lower part of the mix. Whilst, Those of the Depths, has the craziest screams since Wotan’s Return by In The Woods… from way back in 1995. The album as a whole has an instantly likeable groove to it. It’s just no frills Black Metal, not surprisingly, with an occasional Greek feel to it.
Gone are the days where I need to blown away to really enjoy an album. Φθορά has an air of familiarity about it, but more importantly, it flows seamlessly from song to song and its music I really want to hear. And this is an album I will continue to play, long after this review is online.
You can pick this up for the stupidly low price of 3 Euro’s via Bandcamp
https://sorgelig.bandcamp.com/album/-
