Sargeist - Disciple of the Heinous Path
Moribund Cult
Black Metal
6 songs (38:36)
Release year: 2005
Sargeist, Moribund Cult
Reviewed by Daniel

Sargeist is back with it’s full length follow up to Satanic Black Devotion and it’s everything you would expect from this artist… grim and somewhat primitive Black Metal in the vein of classic Finnish tradition. I think it’s safe to say that the country spawning the most conservative and pure Black Metal musicians at the moment is Finland, with bands like Baptism and Satanic Warmaster, concentrating on maintaining their Black Metal as intact as possible, and not trying to break new boundaries with it. And when it comes to traditional grim and cold Black Metal, few people deliver with such vicious primitivism as Shatraug, also to be respected for his great work in cult status Black Metal heroes Horna.

For those not already acquainted with Sargeist, they play somewhat epic Black Metal, but heavily engulfed in dark atmospheres with the help of a blurry, thick guitar tone, dense production and in this album in particular a partially (for Black Metal standards) dirty sound.

When comparing this album to the previous, the most evident aspect lies in the approach more than the sound (although the production is slightly different). While Disciple of the Heinous Path does maintain the somewhat epic direction, the band seems to focus more on the dark and bleak elements this time around. Tremolo picked melodies dominate throughout all the of album, presenting some shades of melancholy now and then, as well as some desperation. Even if in the description, the album may seem to suffer from melodic abuse, the album never gets overly so because of the somewhat varied song structures, and by that I mean inside traditional Black Metal standars where no surprising tempo changes will take place, nor any wild experimentation will occur, just good ole’ Black Metal songwriting in the most accustomed way. Another thing I like about the album are the vocals, while they aren’t absolutely amazing, they are very good and work nicely with the dense atmosphere, not obstructing the music.

The album is mostly solid, but some riffs are dragged a bit too much now and then, and that makes the album a bit tedious at times, but generally the songs flow very well and the listening experience isn’t flawed.

To wrap this up... if you liked the previous album you won’t be disappointed with this one, Sargeist stick to what they do best (that would be pure Black Metal), and if that works out for you then be sure to pick this one up. They might not be reinventing the genre, but when they play this good there’s no reason to be bothered by it, in fact, I think it’s great that there are some decent traditional Black Metal bands out there, and without a doubt Sargeist is one of the best.

Killing Songs :
Black Treasures of Melancholy
Daniel quoted 70 / 100
Other albums by Sargeist that we have reviewed:
Sargeist - Death Veneration reviewed by Alex and quoted 90 / 100
Sargeist - Unbound reviewed by Alex and quoted 86 / 100
Sargeist - Feeding the Crawling Shadows reviewed by Alex and quoted 88 / 100
Sargeist - The Rebirth of a Cursed Existence reviewed by Jared and quoted no quote
Sargeist - Let the Devil In reviewed by Tony and quoted 92 / 100
To see all 7 reviews click here
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