Review Summary: Sororicide's sole full-length album proves to be one of the most rewarding old-school death metal releases in a sea of such material.
It's no secret to anyone who is a fan of death metal that the genre is, and especially
was, beyond-rife with solid and even great bands who only managed to release two albums or even a single, solitary full-length album before fading back into the sinister mist from whence they came. The mystic and uncanny nature of these works is exceeded only by that of the groups that created them. Many such bands have produced albums widely considered as classics of the genre in this vein: Rippikoulu with
Musta Seremonia; Convulse with
World Without God; Demilich with
Nespithe; diSEMBOWELMENT with
Transcendence Into the Peripheral. Amongst the unremitting madness of the death metal scene of the early-1990s, Sororicide could be found following this same path in 1991 with
The Entity.
Sororicide were formed in Iceland in 1990. Perhaps location has something to do with the band's seeming-anonymity within death metal fandom; after all, a great many death metal fans would struggle to name a single death metal band currently or previously from Iceland. This, however, would not stop Sororicide from creating one of the most sinister and rewarding death metal albums of the early-90s.
One knows from the opening notes of the album that the journey will be long, heavy, and creepy, at the very least. Eventually, the album comes to the point of spewing what it promised at you, and more: sick, malevolent riffs, depraved vocals, and interminable drumming of evilness, all tied together in some very well-written songs, and an overall fantastically-written death metal album. Songs such as the album opener, "Human Recycling," "Anger of the Inferior," and "Sororicide" showcase the band's ability to not only craft evil, relentless mind-melting riffs, but to write fun, effective death metal songs. The riffs go seamlessly from beating your senses silly to wailing ethereal misery from beyond the unholy grave like the tortured souls who perished while listening to this album. One such transition is made from "Anger of the Inferior" into "Redrum." The doomy pace sometimes conjured up on this album, in songs such as "Redrum," "Blind," "Frightmares," and the title track, induces twisted dread and doom with slow, drawn-out riffs, miserable guttural moans, and a cathartically suffocating atmosphere like very few bands have been able to produce.
There is, however, just a slight bit of filler on this album. Songs that over-stay their welcome and moments that are less than effective can be found. One such area of the album is in the song "Vivisection." Overall it is a solid song, but one cannot help but notice that the song is a bit out of place on the album and seems to act as a "break" from the rest of the album. A less-than-stellar solo and sections that seem as if thrown-together make the song a bit of a challenging listen at points. This being said, most of the moments on this album that are a detriment to the music are a detriment for such a short amount of time that it is of very little consequence.
The short, simple version of this story is this: if you like nefarious, putrid, unfathomable and repulsive old-school death metal, then this band and album are for you. This is an album that, 23 years after its creation, has many of the death metal fans who
have heard it scratching their heads as to why no more than fifty people on planet earth have heard of them. This is an album sure to bring a joyful, Christmas morning smile to any death metal fan's face and to satisfy the listener with cathartic metal of the death variety. There is not much more to say about this album or band than to speak words spoken by some of my highly-respected compatriots when they say: "m/ m/ m/".
Recommended songs:
Human Recycling
Anger of the Inferior
Saturated
Sororicide
