Sarcasm – Mourninghoul Review

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Straightforwardness! Don’t you love when a band commences an album right to it with all the power and the glory without those fancy intros? I do! That’s the way “As Northern Gates Open” opens the floodgates of musical cruelty Sarcasm deliver the fan with their newest release called “Mourninghoul,” their fifth full-length even though the band’s history had started in 1987. Sarcasm would release blistering Death Metal throughout the early and mid 90’s. After a shortlived reunion in 1997, they would come back into the fold in 2015 with a new re-designed version of their lineup. Now they strike with this brend new album with many influences.

Even though “Mourninghoul” commences with the straightforwardness of “As Northern Gates Open” it’s not possible to say all the album has the same grip. There are moody tracks as “No Solace From Above” that steps down on velocity giving the fan a pretty emotional tune. Grand finale “Absence of Reality” mixes the stunning speed of the start with the moody cadence of the album’s end with lots of guitars. As an album “Mourninghoul” bounces from the insane assault early Death Metal the band used to do to the more melodic and moody strikes the band updated their music. Not an easy task, but Sarcasm do their best to achieve this goal. There are tracks as “Lifelike Sleep” that abuses from the violent speed sounding almost as a Raw Death Metal song. On the other hand, “Withered Memories of Souls We Mourn” commences with a gentle and dark intro that breaks all the concept given before. Its guitar riffs are cadenced with a near Thrash Metal grip. The track is more about the feeling than about speed. And there goes the album bouncing like this.

It’s not easy for veterans bands to update their music and get a place under the sun of Metal music after a long hiatus as Sarcasm had. Their solution was ingenious, that is, to mix their aerly Raw Death Metal with a more melodic verve of it. The outcome is “Mourninghoul,” an album that dares to do both.

Sarcasm “Mourninghoul” will be released on April 12th via Hammerheart Records.

Track Listing:

  1. As Northern Gates Open
  2. Lifelike Sleep
  3. Withered Memories of Souls We Mourn
  4. Dying Embers of Solitude
  5. A Lucid Dream in the Paradigm Stream
  6. Awareness in the Dark
  7. No Solace From Above
  8. Absence of Reality

Watch official lyric video here:

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