I am still listening to this album…. EVERY DAY

Posted by Witness to the Void on Mar 21, 2012 in Now Playing | 0 comments

High fidelity to Fidelium by Sarpanitum

I simply cannot get enough of Sarpanitum’s Fidelium EP. I listen to this album literally every day at work – the huge riffs, the colossal atmospheres, the galactic battering ram through space/time that is the drums….

In my review, I jokingly referred to this album as  atmospheric brutal blackened technical death metal and I stand by that. Fidelium is one high quality EP that is definitely worth the time and money of any metalhead – I eagerly await the next full length, gentlemen.

Go on, listen to it, you won’t be sorry:

Review: Sarpanitum – Fidelium EP

Posted by Witness to the Void on Jan 18, 2012 in CD Reviews | 0 comments

SARPANITUM
Fidelium (2011) EP

United Kingdom, Self-released, Blackened Technical Death Metal

Amongst the Catacombs of Blackened, Atmospheric Brutality…

In many ways death metal can be compared to horror movies. The obvious comparison lies within the superficial subject matter, yet with deeper research viewers/listeners can find another great similarity; the divide between the fans of old and new. Some new technical death bands, like the twelfth iteration in a big Hollywood franchise film series, slap the audience in the face with the auditory compliment to blood, guts, and gore, delivered in an almost sterilized fashion. Such gives way to complaints about pro-tool driven, break down ridden copies of a copy, or the modern “weedly-deedly” death metal bands that have forsaken the sinister atmospheres and lurking fear of the disturbing death metal of yesteryear.
Yet occasionally a new entry into the field remembers the absolutely essential atmospherics of old, while bringing a certain new flair to the genre. It drips with a diabolic climate, moving like a sinister, maddening force, playing at the edges of our mind, but simultaneously delivers the tingling terror that makes a listener/viewer say “I have never seen anything like this before” in both technique and subject matter. Everyone has seen a slasher film, just as everyone has heard a death metal album about zombies.

The Top Tech: Numbers 21 to 11 in 2011

Posted by Witness to the Void on Jan 5, 2012 in Website Related | 0 comments

With so many good albums this year I just couldn’t bear to limit my year end list to only 10. Well, and I have a bit of spare time on my hands at the moment, so I thought I would share with all the metal readers some of the other albums I was spinning this year that didn’t quite make my top 10. It was tough decision making process, even ranking these, which shows how strong of a year this was for metal releases. But first, the top EP’s of the year…

Blackened, Brutal, Atmospheric & Technical – “Despoilment of Origin” by Sarpanitum

Posted by Witness to the Void on Nov 23, 2011 in Now Playing | 0 comments

Apparently there is something in the water that leads to fantastic death metal in Birmingham, UK. Home to one of my personal favorite atmospheric / experimental death metal bands Mithras, something about this town must inspire metal musicians to look to the far past. Just as the aforementioned band looked to Rome and Persia, Sarpanitum’s Despoilment of Origin is rooted in Babylonia, Sumeria, and Akkadia. It was released on Galactic Records in 2007.  Ancient history aside, this album blasts with an absolute whirlwind of atmospheric brutal blackened technical death metal. If that isn’t a sub-sub-sub-sub-genre yet, Despoilment of Origin validates the necessity for it to be. The band members all play in noteworthy bands as well, including live guitars for Mithras, as well drums for Anaal Nathrakh and Fukpig.

Ingredients for top tier death metal: Mesopotamian mythology (similar to Nile but not Egyptian), hellacious brutal death metal fury (Cerebral Bore), sparsely and efficiently used imperial atmospherics (Behemoth, but without the slower passages), whirling technicality (Hate Eternal), and a spice of sinister death metal riffing (Diabolic). Puree these seemingly opposing flavors of metal until fluid. Final result: A  savage smoothie of technicality and devastation that will quench your thirst for unique but pulverizing death metal.

SARPANITUM
Despoilment of Origin (2007)

United Kingdom, Galactic

Band information from:
http://www.last.fm/music/Sarpanitum/+wiki
http://www.myspace.com/sarpanitum
Despoilment of Origin cover art from:
http://www.facebook.com/sarpanitum