NOROTH - Sacrificial Solace
June 29, 2024, 5 months ago
(Carbonized)
Seattle death metal trio Noroth have hopped over to good ship Carbonized for this, their third full-length, and it's a comfortable fit, as these guys make clear from the get-go, opener “Black Serpent” showing that this is going to be a gurgly and ugly affair, DM from the sewers, as it should be.
I love the vibe on tunes like second cut “Symphony Of Decay”, just caveman Autopsy worship, sometimes fast, sometimes a bit faster, all the time pure old-school death metal. “Bloodline” gets brisker, then gets slower, the band splitting the difference and settling into a comfortable mid-paced stomp for most of this record, the kinds of soothing sounds that do the trick when you're walking down the road, toiling away at work, loving life at a show, or even drifting off into a blissful sleep.
These tracks are all a reminder of the glory of simplistic DM, extra slimy, a little bit of a nod to the warfields, some slight spelunking in the afternoon through “Pleading Depths” followed by rack-flipping of newer-jack DM bands, but only the ones who keep it raw and real, as Noroth do throughout these eight awesome songs, polka-stepping through “Adorned In Flesh” and “Poisoned Ashes” and giving us the mean medium median grime that we're here for in killer closer “Devoid Of Grace”.
