(Written by Islander)
“In the lightless darkness of the world below, where the cold, grey waves of the river of forgetting lap against the shores of unceasing, stygian night, there the nameless and the soulless, tragic and deplorable, gather to exchange tales of bleak eternity and whisper secrets born of blood and promises. With sickle and stone they climb the thousand steps to moonlit night, there to gather the dreams of the sleeping, to reap the screams of the foolish and harvest the spirits of those who have turned the world of legends into a world of decay and ruination.”
With those chilling words Tragedy Productions sets the stage for its release of a new album named Φθορά by the Greek black metal band Sørgelig, which the label further describes as “a tapestry of tragic tales and blackest magic”, “a glorious exposition of blasting ferocity and freezing wickedness”, but also as including “haunting sounds that invoke unsettling imaginings of broken ghosts in empty ballrooms, spinning forever in dusty, tear-stained waltzes”.
To help set the stage further, today we bring you the second song from Φθορά to be revealed so far. Its name is “Inexorable Grey“, and Sørgelig introduce it with these words:
“Drifting. Away… Drifting… Again. Within the echoes of your screaming silence. Beneath footsteps to nonexistent destinations. Drifting behind your gaze to find a castrated world. Skies in ruins. Walking corpses. Kings in their swamps. Stumbling. In never-ending lethargy. What you call life, I call attrition. Invading utopia to evoke flames upon your creation. In the name of Life, I evoke death. In the name of Life and of Freedom, I invoke death.”
In the shadow of those words and the equally frightening introductory statements provided on behalf of Tragedy Productions, it’s doubtful that we need to do anything further before installing the song stream and allowing it to guide you into the terrors of Sørgelig‘s underworld visions — but of course we can’t resist.
Sørgelig are frighteningly adept at creating barbed-wire hooks with their riffing, and they do that in this new song, following an introductory passage that quickly sinks the soul into Stygian depths. As the drums canter and blast and riotous screams send shivers down the spine, the scarring guitars create sensations of delirium and devastation that become more and more turbulent.
Backed by a vividly throbbing bass and persistently variable drumming, the riffing drowns the senses in sensations of roiling madness and violence, both feral and ferocious, and the guitars also blaze like gales of fire while the wild shrieks and wretched wails of vocalist Odious continue to shiver the spine.
The music sounds desperate and fearful as well as raging, as if showing us both the brazen, exultant ferocity of war against life and also the terrors of the victims as they perish. It brings to mind vast whirlpools and immense tornadoes of flame, breathtaking in its power and vast in its impact, and there is no relent until the end, when the band’s guest Fredy Germanos solemnly recites an excerpt from Kostas Karyotakis‘ poem “Πρέβεζα“.
SØRGELIG LINEUP:
Odious – Vocals/Lyrics
Reactive – Bass/Guitars
NCRVZRS – Guitars (track 3)
Έκπτωτος – Guitars/Lyrics
N.D. – Drums/Vocals/Guitars
The new album was recorded at: K Sound Studio in Volos (Vocals); KTZ Studio in Thessaloniki (Guitars, Bass); and Infected Studios in Thessaloniki) (Drums). It was mixed and mastered by George Stournaras at Infected Studios.
The album includes layout by Will-Helm Arts and Έκπτωτος, with additional artwork by Badulario (Danny Gonzalez Art).
Tragedy Productions will release Φθορά on October 4th in a 6-panel digipack CD edition with a sixteen-page booklet, and they recommend it for fans of Behexen, Shining, Sargeist, and Dødsferd. For pre-order info, check the links below. Also below you’ll find a stream of another striking song from Φθορά named “Those of the Depths“.
TRAGEDY PRODUCTIONS:
https://www.tragedyproductions.com/
https://tragedyproductions.bandcamp.com/album/-
SØRGELIG:
https://sorgelig.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/sorgeligblackmetal
https://www.instagram.com/sorgelig_