Sourvein, one of the most obscure pioneers of sludge in the late 90's, are back with one hell of a record this year. Entitled
"Black Fangs", Sourvein's latest release is over 43 minutes of cutting, grievous riffage, screamage, and blastage. Lyrically, Sourvein have been more or less this pseudo-horror freaks, who tell their stories the mythical way; utilizing as many symbols as possible, where the point between the symbol, the metaphor, and the reality, begins to get signally lost, and obscured. Manifesting near-perfect production work, the vocals on
"Black Fangs" are extremely violent, pain-ridden and it seems they're coming from bleeding throats of a multitude of dying vampires -- they fit the whole atmosphere just fine, as the artwork does. The guitars, on the other hand, sound like the howlings of a wounded wolf, kind of half-Vitus, half-EHG, cyberpunk kind of sonic futurism. Though about the bass and drums, listening to
"Emerald Vulture", in retrospect, I could say I would have appreciated it if those were done the old way -- the huge, crushing way. One last word, and I despise last words:
"Black Fangs" is easily one of the finest sludge metal records of the past decade, if not the best.
