Dead To This World – Sacrifice

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A brief blast of Satanic black metal seems like the best way to celebrate this year’s Saturnalia, and who better to bring in the festivities than former members of Gorgoroth and Immortal? Sacrifice is a short EP by Dead To This World, being released prior to a full length album in 2012. Iscariah was hardly ever the driving force behind Immortal, but the band’s signature feel does resonate throughout this disc – perhaps combined with the more melodic feel of Watain, to make for a well produced but still very heavy black metal recording. The vocals, like Watain‘s Erik Danielson, are raspy but always quite clear and well pronounced. Everything else abides by the qualities we’ve come to associate with traditional black metal – that particular strange guitar style and throbbing bass playing, though the band do subvert the sound with their general lack of blastbeats, preferring a much more conventional rhythm style in its place. As such, Dead To This World are very much on the melodic end of the black metal spectrum and despite having the Satanic black metal tag, are still effectively just an occult heavy metal band. Overall though, the EP is a solid example of traditional and well executed black metal – one would hope that the album gives a bit more to chew on, but this certainly wets the appetite for what is to come next year.

Written by James Donovan
More: 2011, Black Metal, EPs, Quick.Play Reviews, Dead To This World