Artist: Veneficus Sarcina
Title: Being And Morbidity
Type: Album
Label: Digital
I had kind of come across Veneficus Sarcina browsing my Bandcamp feed and their Nine Of Swords release but this came out a few days agos so I thought, what the hey…
Isn’t it strange how something that seems so obvious can be so… well strange. In a good way. In a great way.
‘Eat The World’ kind of lays out the approach of this one many project. The production is raw but with a fine sound; drums have depth, the guitars sound real and the vocals have that edge that leaves them between a thrash approach and, well, traditional metal. And the sound? It has a great thumping groove to it; very heavy metal with this kind of death cum black metal punked up flavour but still kind of screaming “heavy fuckin’ metal!” at the top of its raw voice. Oh yeah and it’s a cracking little opener too.
‘Rebirth’ nudges me as to where I have heard some of the sound before. Morid Tales era Celtic Frost. That proto-black metal riff that suddenly whips up an spasm and a storm before hauling the breaks back on. It is a thick taste of Celtic Frost that again refuses to let go of the NWOBHM feel. ‘Being’ leans more into the black metal, the riff with a mid to late nineties feel, an eerie quality. Which then goes a bit nuts. The melody twists almost like the tuning keys are twisted and then the synth comes in and it a bulds up a strange menacing chug and a melody that has an old UK 70s punk feel. Hey, its so engaging, honest. Give it a listen.
‘Castles Crumbling’ returns to the Celtic Frost worship via heavy metal, all in the best way. It’s primitive, in a fine way, the frills hacked off with a rusty axe until I think we get a razor edged synth layer to the melody. Or maybe its the guitar pushed through some hellish device. ‘Solipsist’ follows suit in a way, perhaps not my favourite here but hardly bad. ‘Nosferatu’ is just…oh, man the riff is right out of the eighties weird end; ponderous, heavy, dragging something behind it. The melody that surfaces once is is just a glorious bit of NWOBHM with the oddly obsessive feel to the riff. The mid section is a strange gothic moment of melody, subterranean echoes, almost croaked spoken vocals and utter devastation as the guitars sheet down. Its just great. Eccentric sure, but it works.
‘Endless Wander’ twins the slow riff with the trilling of synths, adding an other worldly air that works so well. The 80s heavy metal is strong here, beautifully so as the guitar rises up, takes the lead, falls back to the riff and the vocals intrude for the first time. Speed comes up through the gears, a full head of steam and a compelling melodic taint to it. Damn.
This closes, as other albums of his do, with a Celtic Frost cover of course. This time ‘Return To The Eve. I mean its a cool cover, but more importantly for better or worse it fits so well here. Glove like.
Veneficus Sarcina have made another curious but fascinating album. You can almost feel him working though ideas, thoughts, twists and influences. So many idea bubble up and out of songs. Like all experiments, somethimes things work better than others but when you get music like ‘Nosferatu’ and ‘Endless Wander’ and ‘Eat The World’ you have to give the artist their plaudits. They are definitely working towards something and a little further away from the Frost worship without forgetting those roots – it experiments and pushes and finds so many things that work.
Sometimes it’s the small things that cause the biggest effect; the chilli dropped into the stew. But I find this album both curiously unusual and simply deft well done heavy metal and often both at the same time. I love hybrids. I applaud musicians feeling their way through their musings and explorations and Veneficus Sarcina have done all this and produced a very cool album.
Give it a chance, it’s well worth it and they are most definitely a project to watch out for.
Whatever shape they shift into next..
Gizmo
https://veneficussarcina.bandcamp.com/album/being-and-morbidity
Walking The Liminal Space 