The Greek black metal band Sørgelig, who share three members with another band we’ve written about before (Isolert), released their first EP in 2017 (Forever Lost) and then an excellent debut album (Apostate) this past spring. They have chosen to follow the new album with another EP, this one entitled Devoted To Nothingness, but it’s one that represents a few changes.
First, while Sørgelig‘s four-man line-up remains intact, the EP is the creation of only two of those members — vocalist Odious and multi-instrumentalist N.D. On this EP, N.D. performs guitars, drums, vocals, and bass on two tracks (and guest Konstantinos S performs bass on four others, including the one we’re presenting today).
Second, as compared to the music on Apostate (for example), this revised line-up has chosen to channel their hatred and malice toward life through a more raw and lo-fi expression of black metal — though they have not abandoned some of the key ingredients that made their debut album so seductive.
“Die In Vain“, the track we’re premiering, is in some obvious ways intentionally hard on the ears. The distortion on the guitars is toxic, flesh-abrading, and brain-scorching. The vocal shrieking is no less incinerating in its effect on tender auditory organs. The drums are nearly submerged in that all-enveloping sonic mutilation; here, it is the vibrancy of the bass that provides the more prominent rhythmic drive.
And yet, as the song unfolds, alternating between roiling ecstasies of violence and more gloomy and dismal movements, the music burns and gleams with arcane fire. Especially in the slower parts of the song (when impassioned cries spear out from the music in place of the caustic shrieking), the reptilian melody becomes sublime and mesmerizing, achieving a fascinating hypnotic effect despite the malformed and malefic quality of the vibrations that shroud the song as a whole.
N.D. comments about what drove the creation of the new EP: “Everything is nothing. Conceived with the utter most hate, we are Devoted to Nothingness.”
The EP is recommended for fans of Leviathan, Sargeist, Craft, and Black Murder. It will be released on January 30, 2019 — digitally by the band and on pro-tape on January 30 by Les Fleurs Du Mal Productions. A black vinyl edition is also coming in April via Iron Bonehead Productions.
PRE-ORDER (TAPE AND DIGITAL):
https://sorgelig.bandcamp.com/album/devoted-to-nothingness
FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/sorgelig
TRACK LIST:
1. Light Fades Away
2. Die In Vain
3. The Parasites of Existence
4. H.E.M.E.O.Θ.Σ.
5. Μηδέν
6. Devoted to Nothingness
7. We Shall be Forever Blind
8. Eclipse