Taipei Metal

Review: Sargeist - Let the Devil In

Finnish blacker than all things black metal act Sargeist, having been around since 1999, have released three full length records along with an unholy host of splits, EPs and demos. The latest full length offering is 2010’s Let the Devil In, a bleak and blackened altar awash in razor riffed anti-Christian and anarchistic filth.

“Empire of Suffering” sets the idol ablaze with some blast-addled black metal, screeching and void of all light or hope. It slows to foot-on-monitor black n’ roll, and creeps back to blast, chaotic and melodic all at once. It’s almost classical in its influences, Wagnerian but not overly symphonic. “A Spell to Awaken the Temple” follows with a standalone guitar intro riff that ignites into the typical black metal busy blast you would find on a Marduk or Limbonic Art album. It’s furious and whipping like winds ripping in from the Arctic Circle, cold and militantly Satanic. Whirling black metal riffs sweep violently across the mix, complementing the throat scarring vocals.

Then the disc slows down with “From the Black Coffin Lair”. Here there is something almost folk-like and pagan about the riffage. The dramatic chorus and its forceful delivery are a conjuring of ambition negated and light obliterated by the closing doors of the mausoleum. Then the journey takes us back to the same blast theme as tracks one and two with “Burning Voice of Adoration”, as the depths of ill hope, nihilism, satanic rage and devotion are plumbed to the core. Slashing black meal progressions cut to the bone, going high and then bringing things crashing down to subterranean depths of depressiveness.

“Nocturnal Revelation” is a slow moving but powerful darkened pool of mental misgiving swirling round into psychosis. A ritualistic beat reeks of tribal Satanism and primal pre-Christian aggression. No matter what Sargeist chooses to do, be it blast away or explore some black speed as the band does on “Discovering the Enshrouded Eye”, each song has the same acute presence of evil, despair, rage, and anarchy. Incendiary hellfire bursts explode brimstone stalagmites like powder kegs.

The title track indicates that Sargeist is so intently and uncompromisingly focused in their pursuit and manifesto that they keep their crosshairs trained and don’t take a blackened eye from them for an instant. The chorus has concert favorite etched deeply into it as the minions will no doubt be shouting the mantra-like five syllables of the title over and over again. “Sanguine Rituals” then comes in with more blasting black insanity that fits squarely in the mold, but it’s a very apt mold—the kind Dead might store his deceased avian specimens in. “Twilight Breath of Satan”, likewise, is unquestionably grim, though the one-trick black metal vocals can grate after a time.

Last up is “As Darkness Tears the World Apart”, which emerges with a creeping lead over sweeping rhythm work. It encompasses an album that succeeds in creating a stark and consistent atmosphere throughout. There are no holes in the hooded cloak to be found, and no grins beneath the stoic grimace.