Review Summary: With weight beyond the comprehension of most mortals, Sorrow deliver one of death-dooms most under-appreciated classics.
Death-doom seems to have securely established itself as probably the most consistent sub-genre of the first waves of death metal.
Autopsy,
Purulence,
Rippikoulu, and
Incantation all exemplify it with varying degrees of speed and aggression, but all feature the common elements of crippling low-end and spine-shattering tempo changes. Sorrow were yet another solid contribution to the death-doom scene, and their single album,
Hatred and Disgust, is among the most evil in the genre.
Sorrow focus much more on the doom aspect than some of their peers. Most tracks on the album focus on delivering thick tri-tonal riffs first and foremost, with most tracks then delving into the fast skank beats and tremolo picked guitars that typify the genre. This is facilitated by solid, weighty bass lines that don't stick out too much but are quite audible and, well, bassy, whilst some suitably guttural (but quite clearly enunciated) vocals help to deliver the necessarily blasphemous and destructive lyrics. What will likely help to differentiate
Hatred and Disgust from a lot of their peers is a somewhat blatant influence from
Slayer; a lot of the riffs resolve similarly and use the same motifs, albeit at a much slower tempo. Whilst somewhat derivative, it does serve to give the album a more evil and somewhat thrashier edge that makes it slightly more accessible than comparable works. However, its mostly just
really heavy, which is most key to its sound.
These traits consistently manifest themselves across the 6 tracks present. Most of the strengths of the album lie in when it reaches a suitable groove and tempo which isn't
too slow.
Insatiable gets dangerously close to dragging initially, but progresses into faster, typical death metal sections (not to its discredit) with atonal, wild soloing, helping to keep the pacing varied and strong.
Forced Repression features similar, but better executed traits, as does
Human Error, with crushing results, both being highlights. Additionally, the more melodic and technical
Unjustified Reluctance helps to diversify the album right around its end, when it could otherwise threaten to drag.
Overall, the extremely evil atmosphere and varied tempos of this album help to keep it in league with its similarly excellent brethren. Whilst not the best album of the death-doom style, it's an excellent listen that, despite not being wholly original, performs the pre-requisite genre elements with great efficiency.
