Review Summary: A kaleidoscope of avant death inspired jazz OR jazz inspired death avant kaleidoscope…
Bands occasionally do split the bell curve of opinion in acceptable quantities [sometimes]. I mean not every piece of music is going to meet a broader scope of critical acclaim every single time a band releases anything of note. Of that note, is the New York born Sarmat who could best be described as a test tubular creation homing in on the world of free jazz (incorporating the visage and pray and spray mentality of the Imperial Triumphant crowd), the bluster and brutality brought in from the likes of death metal legends Gorguts, Demilich and Ulcerate camps respectively and ungently stir this beaker until it all froths to the top. That said, this combination of salubrious geno could only cultivate itself in the form of
Determined To Strike. Sarmat’s debut is madly in love with left hand twists into spaghetti wall chaos…and that’s all part of its charm. I think.
What I mean to say is you’re going to love this… or progressively despise the gaoler who locked you in your cell and put this on with unceasing perpetuity. That’s mostly because for all the grandeur and blistering death metal-isms compiled there’s equal amount of improv-jazz-gone-jank while tempos and timings get thrown to the wind, caught, and released again. Information gleaned early on as “Formed From Filth” thrills with polyrhythmic layers under cacophonic death growls. There’s a manic, if not completely frantic lurch that idolises the sheer freneticism of combining artsy noodle jazz sections atop refined lounge nuance and under the grave of frenzied riffs while somehow landing each aesthetic separately and combined. “Landform” has a cadence brought forth from lighter piano strokes—before turning about face into discordant dissonance. Sarmat are at least
determined to define themselves as a metal band with jazz nuance.
Determined To Strike at least caters first to the bone crunch the death metal genre is more commonly known for before throwing waves of occasionally immersive and definitely abrasive jazz sections anywhere they’ll stick. By which I mean Sarmat’s schtick doesn’t stop there.
Determined To Strike’s middle section is [probably] by far the wildest thing
this side of Gorguts that both does and does not want to sound like Gorguts. “Arsenal Of Tyranny” is poised to hit like a rollercoaster crashing headlong into a wall. The twists and turns here are abrupt, winding and taken completely at a pace unrelenting. At times,
Determined To Strike is completely overwhelming and fantastic but can’t escape its more quixotic, stolid trappings. Perhaps if Sarmat found a way to temper or husband its high energy style and focus into something that flows and is cohesive to the point that songwriting leads the ideas they would redefine this niche within a niche. There’s probably not a huge call for trumpet and saxophone stanzas to contest the air space in between gnarled riff-what-the-fuckeries and impenetrable guitar solos only to contrast completely with the listlessness of a jazz-cum lounge section. The title track lurches back into a level of normality, but the butter churn that came before it takes away some of the track’s more caustic, inordinate impact.
Let’s take a sidestep here. The irony isn’t lost, but it’s taken me weeks to put this review together. Life it seems at least contains some parallels to
Determined To Strike and the album’s clear and muddier jumps between genres. That’s relevant right? That helps bring Sarmat’s message to a relatable audience? Of course, it’s completely individual in that particular frenzy, but at the same time even a listener caught in the web of their own nightmarish life is still going to see the faults highlighted after every glowing, spectacular phrase. There is simply
a lot going on here. As such,
Determined To Strike is an album of moments. Some fantastic, some less so and those little bits in between that fill every crack and nook as the music flashes by. Even the record’s back half; as frenzied and caustic as the first, takes the frantic atmosphere and somehow adds
more to it. It’s stress on a musical scale disguised as dissonant leads and instrumental jank only to be treated to the a-typical death metal treatment. To break
Determined To Strike down to its parts is futile. Sarmat is here and the canvas they paint on is layered, albeit messy around the edges.
