Sarpanitum - Blessed Be My Brothers... |
Published February 17 2015
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Komenos |
| Genre | Death Metal |
Tom Innocenti
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Vocals
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| Tracks | 10 |
Tom Innocenti
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Guitar
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| Running time | 44 Min. |
Tom Hyde
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Guitar
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| Label | Willowtip Records |
Tom Hyde
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Bass
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| Release | 17 February 2015 |
Leon Macy
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Drums
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| Country | England |
Tom Innocenti
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Keyboard
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| Producer | - | ||
| Similar artists | Nile, Immolation, Winterfylleth | ||
The crusades, or more specifically the Knights Templar, have been a fairly prominent topic for metal lyrics. Most have chosen the battles fought to tell the order's tale. Sarpanitum on the other hand dedicate their sophomore, and first full-length in eight years, Blessed Be My Brothers… to dig into the psyche of an average brother of the mightiest military order of medieval Europe.
The means to tell the story of an unnamed brother Templar comes fundamentally from brutal death metal in the vein of Nile and Immolation. Apart from the intro which more resembles the Brummies' countrymen from Dragonforce, this album bears all the classical traits of brutal/technical death metal: intense drumming, rapid tempo changes, odd paces, frantic technical riffs and deep growls.
These parts sure have their merits, e.g. the brutality of 'Truth' and the technical escapades of 'Thy Sermon Lies Forever Tarnished', but truth be told they are rather formulaic. The influences are clearly audible and the thick messy production with its clicking bass drums feels dated to the turn of the millennia. Still, Sarpanitum eventually becomes so much more than your average Nile clones.
The secret lies in the beautiful emotional melodic guitar and keyboard passages skillfully woven into riffs or played as separate lines/tracks, particularly bringing the English folk music influences from Winterfylleth to mind. Conjuring feelings of sadness, darkness and melancholy as well as triumph, light and hope, these are the parts that truly tell the tale of our Knight Templar, a tale of believing in a just cause that required tremendous sacrifice.
When Blessed Be My Brothers… smoothly shifts between brutality and beauty it becomes truly great with songs like 'By Virtuous Reclamation', 'Glorification upon the Powdered Bones of the Sundered Dead', the haunting 'I Defy for I Am Free' and the ferocious 'Malek al-Inkitar'.
Where Nile managed to bring out the darkness of the sunny Egyptian civilization, Sarpanitum manages to find the beauty in the most zealous military order of the European dark ages. Impressive! Those who enjoy their conventional brutal death metal have plenty to find here.
Those who enjoy the unconventional have even more! When
Sarpanitum steps away from the brutality slightly and brings in the
beauty and the light, they become more than clones and truly show their
potential as a dynamic act within a narrow sound.
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Performance
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Originality
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Production
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Vocals
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Songwriting
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7 |
8 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
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Summary
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7 chalices of 10 - Tengan |
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