Review by Felix on November 24, 2019.

Catalonia is striving for independence. Spain means pain! Or is it exactly the contrary? Anyway, Krossfyre originate from this sunny and turbulent region. On this basis, it can be seen as an ironic twist of fate that they do not cherish an autonomous approach in terms of their musical offering. Burning Torches is filled to the brim with fanatic black thrash metal which draws on the tried and tested stylistic devices of this roughshod hybrid genre. In addition, bulky death metal elements are not totally excluded. Despite its actually good flow, the title track can confirm this. Nevertheless, deathly ingredients play a less prominent role.

The quasi-opener "Fire Solution" convinces with its rabid configuration and a spooky, siren-like guitar line. Fans of Nifelheim will love this blistering piece and I share their passion. In view of the fact that we speak of debutants, this track can be deemed as perfect. Exactly the here presented mix of violent energy and pretty insane guitars makes my blood boil. Better still, there are more killers on this EP. To my big surprise, the band has even dedicated a song to the lead singer of Sabaton. You guessed it, I am speaking of "The Great Masturbator". This title really fits like a glove. Only the musical content and its quality level are million miles away from the outpourings of this ridiculous joke figure. Morbid guitars open the song, impulsive eruptions are the result of dynamic tempo changes and the fantastic guitar work is, in spite of its general vehemence, emotional enough to create a few brilliant melodies.

However, each and every regular song sounds very energetic and adds value to this first sign of life. Only the intro is dispensable, but these 50 seconds do not mar the overall impression. More crucial is that the production sets the compositions into the right light. Aggressive guitars, a pumping bass guitar and thundering drums meet the vigorous and vile vocals. A certain number of lead singers does not sound very authentic when trying to convey an evil feeling. But "A.K." executes this job flawlessly.

The fact that the dudes follow an old school approach does not mean that Burning Torches sounds stale. Quite the opposite. Their rawness, their spontaneity and their audacity infect the listener and the title of the EP keeps its promise. This band truly knows how to keep the torches burning and in addition to the aforementioned Nifelheim, old heroes such as Possessed or early Morbid Angel are definitely further influences of Krossfyre. Well, one can choose much worse idols. This not only applies to extreme metal. In terms of political ideas, it is also easy to select the wrong concept. Thus, I hope that the people in Spain and Catalonia will find a good solution. Otherwise I exhume the bones of Franco in order to show them that the present is definitely better than the past, regardless of questions of autonomy.

Rating: 8.7 out of 10

Review by Aaron on March 19, 2005.

Darkthrone is one of those bands that never really changes. That’s not negative criticism, whatsoever. There are very few bands that are able to maintain the same musical quality from album-to-album and not come out stale.

What Darkthrone does well is take what they have and direct it towards a previously uncharted vector of darkness and dirt. Sardonic Wrath is no exception to this. From the get-go, with the dark, “Order of the Ambient,” courtesy of the keyboardist from fellow Norwegians, Red Harvest, it drives the listener into levels of the abyss never before heard on a Darkthrone album. The assault continues with songs such as, “Information Wants to Be Syndicated,” “Straightening Sharks in Heaven” (gets my vote for best song title ever), “Man Tenker Sitt” and “Hate is the Law.” These all hark back to the glory that is A Blaze in the Northern Sky, while still combining tried and true Darkthrone-isms into an album that comes out fresh and new.

This album receives a high mark on production, whereas any other band would be roasted, simply because Darkthrone would lose their atmosphere with high production quality – it wouldn’t work. They know how to use low production quality as an instrument unto itself and it comes through in Sardonic Wrath, well.

Fenriz is getting nasty in his old age, his drumming technique has gotten farther away from actually drumming and gotten more into the “beating the shit out of the sonuvabitch” school of percussion. This works great in maintaining the level of primitivism that Darkthrone tends to maintain atmosphere-wise, while still not lapsing into shoddy performance. Nocturno Culto’s guitar play focuses on very dirty, old-school black metal, with definite tips-of-the-hat to punk and thrash. However, in no way does this detract from the black metal ethic they, themselves, have helped to create and strengthen. There are some that attest that Hate Them missed the mark, to them I say Sardonic Wrath hits it and then barrels forward. I pray to unholy gods that 2005 continues musically the way that this album has paved.


Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 10
Production: 8
Originality: 8
Overall: 9

Rating: 8.8 out of 10