The Expedition Continues with...
SARCÓFAGO - I.N.R.I.
Alright, so I listened to this album after the Batlord showed me one of the tracks from it. This is much, MUCH heavier than Bathory's first album as it is borderline death metal like a large percentage of proto-black metal albums in the 80s. Accordingly, I was a bit turned off by the vocals at points when I first listened to this, but I am far and away over the vocals now and consider this album to be one of the sickest albums I have heard in the past year. I would probably say that this album has the heaviest vocals in metal outside of brutal death metal and grindcore. And if the album cover with the band members covered in corpse paint; standing in a graveyard; with inverted crosses worked in to the cover, this album covers mostly irreligious themes.
I have never known what genre this album is properly described as, as it certainly belongs in discussions of proto-black metal albums, and proto-death albums, but there are hints of extreme thrash as well. I guess we could just call it an early extreme metal album and that should settle it.
"Satanic Lust" is the first track, and after some downpicked riffs get going, there is this incredibly evil sounding beastly growl that I am sure would have Trollheart running for cover. The riffs continue for a bit until the guitars intensify and then we hear some of the first iterations of blast beats in metal. Now I do not want people to get the idea that I am some religious pussy and the lyrics bother me, but they do to some extent bother me in this song. The saving grace is that the vocals are very unintelligible. Some of the lyrics for certain songs are kind of ****ty, but other times, they are great.
I really would classify all of the songs on this album as great, or at least very memorable (who could not like "Deathrash"?) but I do have two favorites. I know I talk about riffs A LOT, but one of the riffs in "Nightmare" is truly heavy. At 5:38 the song is just a tad too long but it is still my favorite due to the guitar work alone.
"The Last Slaughter" is my other favorite track, again, for a very groove-y middle section of the song which contains another swell riff.
Overall, this album was really heavy when I first listened to it, but it was not quite as likable as the Bathory album I listened to before it. After this, I started looking at the list of black metal artists the Batlord provided me with, but first, I took a brief stop revisiting Metallica.