Sargeist - Let the Devil In

Sargeist is the side-project of Shatraug of the legendary and extremely prolific Finnish black metal band Horna.  By far one of the leading figures in his country’s scene, few black metal musicians have ever possessed such a firm grasp on the creation of works within the genre.  He excels at writing compelling, memorable riffs and perhaps more importantly, is able to construct effective, forcible songs from those riffs.  He’s had his hands on the work of no less than 20 different bands over the course of his career, but he’s truly outdone himself with Sargeist’s third, and most powerful album to date Let the Devil In.  Simply put, this is absolutely one of the best black metal albums of 2010.

I’ve always found Shatraug’s Sargeist material to be infinitely more listenable than Horna, and with Let the Devil In, we witness the rare phenomenon of a side-project surpassing the main band in quality.  Most immediately noticeable is the massive progression in production quality since 2005’s Disciple of the Heinous Path.  The band now inhabits a startlingly rich, full sound as compared to the much grimmer, traditionally lower fidelity recording quality of the previous two albums, and not one shred of the vitriolic malevolence so essential to traditional black metal is lost in the process.  The song lengths have shortened considerably, and a more rock and roll song structure seems to also have found its way into the material making it all that much more infectious and enjoyable.

While the previous albums were truly gratifying, and presented some of Shatraug’s uncanny ability to infuse the harshest minimal black metal with haunting melody, Let the Devil In showcases an abundance of the most insanely catchy melodic black metal riffing I’ve heard on tracks like “Burning Voice of Adoration” and “Twilight Breath of Satan”.  We also get a nice variety of tempo and dynamic with slower fare like “From the Black Coffin Lair” slowing down the pace and still featuring some astoundingly melodic riffing, really giving Behexen vocalist Hoath Torog, who puts in another powerful, inspired performance, a chance to blaspheme mightily.  “Nocturnal Revelation” slows things down even more, oozing sinister devotion, and is actually quite reminiscent of the fantastic “Cursed Blaze of Rituals” off the previous album.  Fans of Behexen will recognize Hoath Torog’s effective dalliances in the death metal realm of vocalization that he again utilizes (sparingly) on the blistering “Discovering the Enshrouded Eye” and on the title track, which is also the only place I find the most minor of problems with Let the Devil In, and that’s with the repeated chorus lyric that really just sounds out of place and a little silly to me.  Rounding out the group is Horna bassist Vainaja and Behexen drummer Horns who has a healthy relationship with his ride cymbal, and delivers another solid performance, managing to sound a good deal more involved in the proceedings than he has in the past.

It’s virtually unheard of for a “super-group” to create an album that out performs all of the output of the members’ main bands, but Sargeist has certainly done that with Let the Devil In.  Truly a monumental success of an album that unfortunately was overshadowed in the media by an inferior album by a bigger name band from Sweden.  Hopefully we won’t have to wait another 5 years for the next one!  Magnificent.

Release Date: November 11, 2010
Label: Moribund Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Empire of Suffering
2.  A Spell to Awaken the Temple
3.  From the Black Coffin Lair
4.  Burning Voice of Adoration
5.  Nocturnal Revelation
6.  Discovering the Enshrouded Eye
7.  Let the Devil In
8.  Sanguine Rituals
9.  Twilight Breath of Satan
10.  As Darkness Tears
       the World Apart

Total playing time:  46:45

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*Comments:

Reviewer: J. A. Burt

January 26, 2011