It’s always interesting to see what multi international, extreme metal band Nader Sadek are going to come up with next. This is a group who change musicians and vocalists with each phase of their career and this time around replacing Steve Tucker, Sadek has installed Travis Ryan (Cattle Decapitation) into the ranks to work on his ideas and vocal phrasings. Also joining this super heavyweight combo along with the consistent force of Flo Mounier (Cryptopsy) on drums, Rune Eriksen (Aura Noir ex Mayhem and Ave Inferi) guitars we have a different bass player on each song including Marcin Rygiel (Annihilated and Decapitated) Bobby Koelble (Death) and Alex Webster Cannibal Corpse) and there’s some bloke called Andreas Kisser involved on additional guitars too. This should be enough to have most people salivating at the thought of what this sounds like.
It’s only a four track EP this time around though but still it sets us up for what may well be the cast list for a new full length, who knows for sure if that is going to be the case but on the strength of these new numbers one would hope so. Thematically this is as dense as the musical exploration taking on a biblical future where god and the devil have withdrawn leaving mankind stuck in a limbo. Taking on a quest to reinstall the balance is, “a nameless protagonist journeys to the sacred mountain of the divine.” In doing so however he unwittingly places the devil in command rather than freeing souls to “eternal bliss” meaning that cataclysm is unleashed. It would make a very good Jodorowsky film in my mind and Sadek always has interesting ideas to embellish the music with.
‘Deformation By Incision’ batters in without mercy with Flo having a real workout. Ryan’s vocal barks and growls relate the tale, not that they are easy to decipher as they are brutal as you would expect amidst the stew of bass heavy thick, coruscating riffs driving it all along. A couple of sinister and spiralling solos are embedded sharply within things briefly before it rages on all leading towards a short fiery and rabid ending just 3 ½ minutes after it started. ‘Carrion Whispers’ adds a tense atmosphere and a touch of blackness to the death metal bombast. Vocals get a chance to really roar away as things slow a bit and the hefty weight behind it really slaps you around whilst some vile sounding rasps are added in the background. It has a good groove laden morass and takes a bit more time to unravel allowing you to get under the skin of it more. Still it’s a deadly, venomous deluge of brutality with a real master class of musicians working in a great co-ordinated mass with each other. ‘Entropy Eternal’ is flung out at a fast paced gallop and romps away with the hoary gruff vocals dictating over things. Again there’s some excellent soloing embedded into things and some stranger slithering fret work giving it an arcane feeling of doomed, apocalyptic, end of world cults battling for supremacy.
‘Descent’ is the longest piece and proffers a change of pace crawling in with glistening occult sounding guitar work that is somewhat reminiscent of Mayhem and Carmen Simoes of Ave Inferi adds to the dark mass with some warbling backing vocals. As for Ryan the change of speed does him no harm allowing his growls to slow and ooze out along with things in a somewhat horrific fashion. There are also some clean rafter hitting vocals which would never have been anticipated at the start of this EP. Chapter III is a lot to take in over a short time, just think of all the ideas that Sadek probably has up his sleeve for a full length. It will be interesting to see where things go from here.
If you are readers of Decibel or Terrorizer look out for this apparently it is going out free with the magazines in the future.
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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