The Grand Arc of Madness

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8.0

• Bands:
  SARCOPHAGUM
• Duration: 00:34:14
• Available from: 06/12/2024
• Label:

• Nuclear Winter Records

Streaming not yet available

Intense period for bassist Adam Martin and guitarist Matt Hillman. Fifteen days after the excellent EP by Golgothan Remains (“Bringer of Light, Matriarch of Death”, published by Dark Descent), the Australian musicians are back on the market with the debut album by Sarcophagum, a project completed by drummer Robin Stone and by the singer Chris (former frontman of Golgothan Remains themselves), and dedicated to the exploration of dark realms on the wings of an enveloping, layered death metal with a strong cinematic vein.
Music that these days forces us to bother with important and increasingly celebrated comparisons in the contemporary underground, but which the quartet – after the convincing mini “Conduits to the Underworld” of 2022 – demonstrates that it knows how to handle it with that ease typical of those who don't have to force themselves to play in a certain way, demonstrating an almost innate talent in the creation of narrative and 'travelling' plots, conveyed here in a tracklist which, little by little, seems to transform into a bus intent on shuttling between the cosmos and the bowels of the Earth.
A grim sound that unfolds from a precise and penetrating rhythmic base and from an angular and lysergic guitar work, in which the atmospheric component is used both as a glue and as a springboard for further sonic explorations, with the obvious influence of Ulcerate – especially those of the latest works – to echo in each of the four episodes of the collection.
The latter, rather than following a song form, prefer to unfold in a free and flexible way, being guided by a sort of visceral echo which first of all highlights the emotional and melodic aspect of the proposal, rather than highlighting the aggression inherent in the genre, in a flow capable of making its way into the psyche recalling – at times – the inexorable advances of certain Polish black metal.
The result is a work with a dense and subliminal edge, which distances itself from what is obvious to launch into an ambitious but never gratuitously eccentric construction, and in which harmonies and dissonances, full and empty spaces, coexist always keeping in mind the concepts of riffs and musicality, enhanced by an exquisitely warm and organic production by Greg Chandler (Adorior, Cruciamentum, Grave Miasma).
An album, this “The Grand Arc of Madness”, which those who adore the authors of the recent “Cutting the Throat of God”, as well as those who remember the splendid “Nadir” by their compatriots Beyond Terror Beyond Grace (RIP), will will soon find itself consuming, with the fifteen minutes of the title track sublimating a decidedly mature and focused writing in its wandering between the spheres of light and darkness. Experience to try.