Sahg – Sahg II

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Regain Records
Produced by Rob Caggiano

Sahg, the Norwegian band featuring members of Gorgoroth, Audrey Horne and Manngard, formed in 2004 and released their debut album in 2006. This follow-up comes less than two years later, amongst work with their parent bands, and continues to offer a very different sound to their day jobs.

To all intents and purposes Sahg are a Norwegian Cathedral. Doom and traditional metal elements abound mixed with a classic hard rock sound give Sahg quite a unique angle on the opening two songs here. Ascent To Decadence is Tony Martin-era Black Sabbath meets Cathedral while, Echoes Ring Forever strays into spacey Led Zeppelin territory.

But the first two songs are deceptive because the album ends up being a doom metal classic, though those two tracks do successfully demonstrate the versatility of these experienced players. They are followed by doomy instrumental From Conscious Sleep, which precedes an equally doomy Star-Crossed, this time mixing a Cathedral influence with the retro Scandinavian doom-rock sound of Witchcraft and Leaf Hound, complete with fuzzy guitar solo.

Folky Escape From The Crimson Sun follows, which is the kind of ominous folk-influenced dirge that the original Sabbath line-up produced, then Pyromancer and Wicked Temptress are classic original line-up Sabbath meets one of Scott Weinrich’s many doom projects.

In the normal doom metal tradition the album closes with an epic, ten minutes in this case. Monomania is by no means as boring as the title might suggest. It begins in the soft, swirling style a lot of doom epics begin, with heavily reverb’d guitars and hushed vocals and gradually picks up pace and intensity throughout, but never gets particularly heavy, remaining largely instrumental. It’s more of retro-doom rock than doom metal – the kind of hazy, progressive stuff we’re led to believe is best enjoyed under the influence of something. Again, it further demonstrates the versatility of the band, especially given their largely unrelated background.

Sahg’s second offering doesn’t put a foot wrong. The requisite variations of pace, style and sound needed for a truly great doom record are here, expertly produced by ex-Anthrax guitarist Caggiano, and the talent of the players is unquestionable. Given their involvement in other bands touring is likely to be irregular, but there are some opportunities to seem them supporting other bands, and each one should be taken.

“ a doom metal classic ”

Tracklist: Ascent To Decadence / Echoes Ring Forever / From Conscious Sleep / Star-Crossed / Escape The Crimson Sun / Pyromancer / Wicked Temptress / By The Toll of The Bell / Monomania

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Doom Metal, Sahg