Review Summary: Melody in my BM has never tasted so good.
Sometimes music that is overly melodious bugs me, but so does music that is flat and boring like some of the crap-mainstream BM acts nowadays. Sacramentum’s
Far Away From the Sun strikes a perfect balance between melody and the darkened moods native to black metal. Their style of melody is more “deep” in feel than catchy. When I say “deep” I’m referring to that serene feel you get when standing outside in a nights sky while it’s raining. You get a certain warm feel as well as a nice body massage during the occasion. Sacramentum hits that “deep” melodious feel on pretty much every track this album has to offer. This is also Sacramentum’s crowning achievement, given their relatively short career as a band. Their newer album tends to lose the passion of composition as well as the perfectly fitting production found here.
Sacramentum prefers to execute their rhythm sections with tremolos and arpeggios rather than Gothenburg styles of individually picked out notes; which it must be clarified that certain tracks will still contain some Gothernburg styles but they are used sparingly which add to the album enjoyability. With this style of tremolos that are rapidly high in tempo we get more of a violin feel where the notes feel more constant rather than slower picked out notes that lose their juice. “Fog’s Kiss” was an excellent way to start
Far Away From the Sun. Immediately from the beginning we are introduced into an atmosphere of hazy melodic tremolos and drum blast beats. From here we hear Sacramentum’s style of dynamics. They prefer a combination of smooth tempo changes and those that are extreme. This formula is obviously common in the melo-bm genre but Sacramentum seem to nail it everytime. None of their riffs feel forced or overdone; a testament to their fantastic song writing capabilities on this album. They somehow know just when a song needs a push or let back. So, basically we’re dealing with a group of musicians who are very well versed in expressing themselves as well as modern music education.
As we know, the opener track gives a clear indication of what to further expect from
Far Away From the Sun. Each of the succeeding compositions seem to flow very well into each other as the first two tracks sound like they could be one song but each track still continues to carry its own flavor of feel and mood. We are obviously dealing with black metal and Sacramentum hold true to the depressive and melancholic natures that make black metal so appealing. Nicklas Rudolfsson[Runemagick] handles the drums like a pro and is a standout in the album besides the awesome melodies created by vocalist/guitarist Nisse Karlen and Johan Norman. Nicklas’s isn’t your typical bm drummer that just throws around blast beats and double bass. His style is more complex but not in an overly compulsive type of way. He handle the normal bm drum fair well but also adds more fluid drum-ride techniques as well as sometimes obscure licks like the ones found on “When Night Surrounds Me”; obscure in the way that raises listeners attention due to Nicklas’s level of creativity.
While
Far Away From the Sun may sound aggressive by description it mostly is not. One of the album highlights, as well as one of my favorite personal tracks, “Cries From a Restless Soul” starts off with some of the fastest bm tempos you may ever hear; comparable to those of Burzum’s
Hvis lyset tar oss. But, because of alternating-note melodies it feels like snowflakes landing on the outer surface of your skin; that is, if you have ever experienced that in your neck of the woods. These riffs in this song are sometimes so high-tempo to the point where it feels like they’ve reached hyper speed where restrictive wind resistance is no longer an issue. There are many feelings like just mentioned that you may experience like weightlessness, depression, happiness, hopelessness, and even hope; I guess it all comes down to your outlook on life. But, whatever disposition you may have at the time of listening,
Far Away From the Sun should be sure to please.
Amongst the strongest album black metal has to offer, Sacramentum have left a forever enduring mark with [i]Far Away From the Sun[i/]. You won’t come across melo-bm often that is as enjoyable as Sacramentum’s debut LP. Whether you’re checking this out for the melodies and riffs or the hazy santanic lyrics and naturistic themes,
Far Away From the Sun is the perfect album to
feel what melo-bm is capable of.
