SACRIPHYX — The Western Front (review)

SACRIPHYX — The Western Front album cover

Album · 2013 · Death Metal

4/5 · 2016-08-15
siLLy puPPy

And the death metal train keeps chugging along well into the 21st century ever morphing and cross pollinating with other strands of metal and non-metal alike. SACRIPHYX are one of the legions of bands that has taken the death metal approach and created a somewhat unique way of delivering the goods. This band is but a mere duo coming out of the Australian Capital Territory from the city of Canberra formed in 2007. This full sounding band consists of only Neil Dyer on drums and Anthony Till handing vocals, guitars and bass and after releasing a couple splits with StarGazer and Resuscitator, and then a compilation of those tracks with a couple new ones, SACRIPHYX finally released their debut album THE WESTERN FRONT in 2013 on the Nuclear War Now! label. While labeled as death label for the sake of a sane database, SACRIPHYX are one of those hard-to-peg type of bands that is indubitably extreme metal but seems to revel in mixing different styles of the metal universe into their mix, but hardly old school death metal.

While the overall feel comes across as death metal, the atmosphere is more rooted in 90s Greek black metal. As the instrumental title track begins it insinuates a death doom album to come complete with artillery and fire sound effects signaling their interest in the subject matter of World War I, but the second track “Buried Behind The Lines” immediately brings the early Rotting Christ sound to the forefront complete with tortured soul vocal style and bleak atmosphere of 90s Greek black metal bands such as Varathron as well . The music is hard, crunchy, rhythmic and melodic with filthy raw production values. As the album proceeds the tunes become more diversified in their makeup and these guys make ample use of thrash riffing with death metal constructs but there is also an underlying classic 80s metal sound lurking beneath the brutal crushing riffs that is most noticeable during the melodic guitar solos. The slower segments reek of doom metal with an overarching element of 90s Greek black metal in the atmospheric department.

The album’s subject matter is entirely dedicated to the horrors and hopelessness of being in the trenches of Australian soldiers who participated in the efforts of WWI. It is bleak and depressive and the music perfectly suits the mood to supplement the narrative. The riffing style is heavily inspired by the US melodic death metal band Arghoslent but the vocals and musical flow is very much in vain of “Thy Mighty Contract” era Rotting Christ and other Greek bands like Varathron. Although the music is rooted in all the aforementioned styles, the tracks vary in terms of stylistic ingredients and the flow of the album remains intriguing throughout its run. While at times taking a ride on the wild side with galloping riffs at speedy tempos, the tracks are mostly mid-paced in tempo with the track “Without A Trace” almost coming across like a blackened death metal ballad with a snail’s paced speed that exudes a death doom slowed down rampage with crunchy riffs and melodic guitars. Overall this is an interesting album that takes disparate influences and cross-pollinates them in a totally new way while never even close straying into the experimental or avant-garde. This one has a traditional story-telling metal approach while incorporating new visions of how to forge a new metal sword to piece your soul with frightful yet delightful horrors of yestercentury.