Sorhin - Apokalypsens ängel (2000)^{Release ID: 28898}

Sorhin's album Apokalypsens ängel is a record that fares a lot better in comparison to other traditional black metal albums of the 1990s. It still suffers heavily from the production issues the plague most of the black metal scene even today, but Sorhin at least do something interesting with the sound. The heavier thrash grooves that appear throughout the record make for a unique sound and a cool change of pace from the straightforward black metal riffing. The songwriting can be hit-or-miss but more often than not the songs do have some solid through lines making them memorable. The downside is that this is a black metal album and the production of those instrumentals is quite lackluster. Above all of the typical concerns, the stereo mixing is super weird. Like you'll hear on tracks like "Ett sista monument ståtligt" a stereo split in the guitars and they sound so fuzzy and uncomfortable. Perhaps that's part of the point, but the feedback is brutal and it never sounded this bad when the guitars are closer to the center of the mix.

This record did mark for a nice change of pace for me and brought to light a lesser known name in the old school black metal sound. But even by my very low standards of that era of music, I cannot rate this any higher while bands like Dissection, Emperor, and Summoning are making albums of greater quality.

Best Songs: Där allt svunnet är, där ingenting är allt, Ett sista monument ståtligt, Misantropi & död, När döden sträcker ut sina vingar

Sweden, home to Bathory, Morbid, Nifelheim, Marduk, Dissection, Svartsyn, Vinterland and Sorhin. The latter band on that list is the one I am perhaps least familiar with, and so the feature release for The North is truly expanding my horizons. I did get them confused with Dawn at first before I got into Apokalypsens ängel proper, although the similarities are more than obvious. Sorhin, on what has to date been the last full-length release from the band, treat the listener to “101” blueprint of how black metal should be done. Grim, ghastly vocals? Check. Scathing guitar riffage? Check. Blistering drums? Check. For an album released at the turn of the century, it could easily be from the height of the second wave

Holding a largely stable lineup for the duration of their career, with vocalist, Nattfursth and guitarist/bassist (and latterly drummer also) Eparygon having been constants since the band’s inception in 1993, Sorhin sound cohesive. Yes, there is a strong element of a celebration of chaos in their music; obvious throughout Apokalypsens ängel in fact, but this is not a band who are all over the place with their timings and tempos. Sorhin have mastered the art of ordered chaos, taking the charge of Marduk but pairing it back with lashings of melody to keep those hooves from running too rampant. Therefore, Apokalypsens ängel manages to stand out from the dirge of other black metal albums in the traditional style.

Coupling maturity with stinging attack, measure and balance with intensity and burning passion for their artform is the key to Sorhin’s success here. I did have to take a few listens to the album for it to click, but at the third or fourth attempt, it all fell into place nicely enough. The drumming of Zathanel is also worthy of a mention (he is no longer listed as being in the band nowadays), as he gives an assured performance in the background, the mix perhaps not always doing him justice as it does favour the guitar and vocals more. However, he does manage to peak through on occasion, if only to let us know he is still there.

I do have a couple of criticisms of the album however, that peg it’s rating back somewhat. Firstly, it is too long with the version on Spotify having an extra track at the end that takes the whole experience to over fifty-four-minutes. This adds a further problem in that on this version the two longest tracks are at the end, and as such the impact of album closer (proper) ‘Utmarsch - den nya Messias’ is somewhat lost. The arrangement therefore seems to have this sense of slipping over the last two tracks on the record. With most other tracks under five-minutes the concise consistency of the album does tend to come to an abrupt end unexpectedly and the ending experience is disappointing as a result.