Two men. From Belgium. Laying down riffs with a JCB Digger. No pesky vocals to get in the way of the thunderous groove. Jelle and Roel on Drums and guitars respectively have released their third full length imaginatively titled III . What the title lacks the contents more than makes up for in spades. Big heavy concrete encrusted spades, wielded like Gibson explorers.
Sardonis know what fans of stoner love – massive riffs with a lot of groove and some old fashioned rawk thrown in to keep the pulse racing and nipples erect. There is evidence of the desert laden boots of Kyuss and Atomic Bitchwax here but filtered through some heavier psyche doom encrusted astral plane.
Opener “The Coming of Khan” opens with a space rock / psyche guitar line before the riff builds and builds and the drums crash. There is the right balance of repetition for lovers of all things stoner and progression for those of us who like to see light at the end of the tunnel. There is even a section towards the end which brings to mind Killer era Maiden which is always a good thing.
Battering –ram does not creep in like its predecessor and lives up to its name unleashing a delicious riff that High on Fire would be proud to tame and call their own. This track slows to a crushing crescendo readying the listener for the funeral doom into of “Roaming the Valley”. Unhindered by a vocalist Sardonic are free to explore whichever subgenre of metal they choose which may confuse some but delight many others. “Roaming the Valley is heavy as fuck , a gargantuan Titan of a riff crawling towards the ears before transforming into a snarling thrash beast a couple of minutes in . Like early Testament or Dark Angel played to a martial drum beat. Once the life force is spent from the listener Jelle and Roel return to the slabs of guitars as they beat their retreat, slowly and oh so carefully.
“Ruined Decay” that follows feels positively vibrant after that ending. It evokes a Middle Eastern vibe – the desert landscaped changed from America to Arabia in the flick of 4 wrists before beckoning in a doom passage to welcome in the Sabbath shirted hordes.
Album closer “Forward to the Abyss” is a long ‘un. 12 minutes less some change, this opus stumbles out of the blocks in a red eyed haze. This truly is one for the horticulturalists. It meanders through the riffs twisting and turning a little but mainly keeping a steady pace and path and then Holy church burners! It appears to be a chap in corpse paint on the road. Sardonis drop some Black metal passages into the fog – proper old school Darkthrone/Emperor style. It shouldn’t work but it does. Then things take off back in a more stonerly direction once more before the whole thing descends into doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom with all the life sucked out of it.
Sardonis have offered plenty of variety within this 5 track album that will delight lovers of Stoner and Doom alike. Whether you go back to it again and again will be down to your relationship with the riffs. I was left humming Battering Ram long after the music had stopped. Looks like these Belgians are onto something.
(7/10 Matt Mason)
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