SARKE
Endo Feight
(Soulseller Records)
36:55min

SARKE are a five-piece band hailing from Oslo, Norway, active since 2008. “Endo Feight” serves as the band’s eighth full-length release, issued by Soulseller Records. Their newest effort combines the talents of mastermind Sarke with that of Nocturno Culto (DARKTHRONE), Steinar Gundersen (SATYRICON, live), and Anders Hunstad (SATYRICON, live). With a stacked line-up, the band performs a surprisingly stripped-down interpretation of very melodic and somewhat experimental Black Metal. “Endo Feight” is not a demonstration of crushing extreme music, but it is an exercise in tempered and restrained vocally narrative Heavy Metal. Most of the album’s first half is as heavy as early ARCTURUS, beginning with ‘Phantom Recluse’, which rides a very basic main riff throughout the track, one that largely consists of single notes, accompanied by various layers of keyboard work. ‘Death Construction’ and ‘Lost’ follow the exact same path. Minimalist Heavy Metal with tinges of Progressive Rock and some trace elements of Black Metal. Flowing lead work from the guitars counterpoint Nocturno Culto’s signature gruff vocals. The keyboards show a level of sophistication in their approach towards conventional music theory. There is little in the way of verses and choruses, with most of the vocals following a poetic flowing narrative. ‘Abyssal Echoes’ shows a glimpse of SARKE’s more direct songwriting approach, but it’s not until ‘Old Town Sinner’, that the listener is finally exposed to something that would register as “extreme”, to some degree. ‘Old Town Sinner’ ditches the open, progressive writing style and closes itself off, leading to a sophisticated track that brings some heaviness to template of clean, lightly distorted guitars and bright synth work that dominated the first half of the album. ‘In Total Allegiance’ is, without a doubt, the heaviest song on the entire record. It opens on an uptempo blast beat, lead and rhythm guitar separate and merge with one another atop cosmic keyboards, Nocturno Culto sounds at home here. This is the closest thing to Black Metal you will hear on all of “Endo Feight”. Overall, this is a bit of an oddity in terms of extreme music. While not possessing many elements one comes to associate with any form of extreme art or music, what exists is something akin to ARCTURUS, ORANSSI PAZUZU or VED BUENS ENDE, a cosmic anomaly that sits itself outside of the conventional Heavy Metal structure and shines with slight influence of multiple different genres. Going into this expecting something wickedly heavy is going to lead to disappointment, but if one desires something heavily artistic and expressionist, “Endo Feight” is a good pick. For more information on SARKE, check out www.facebook.com/sarkeofficial. For additional information on Soulseller Records, see www.facebook.com/soulsellerrecords.

Andrew Krause

Andrew Krause

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