Review by Alex on October 6, 2024.

Sørgelig – a name that did not occur on my radar so far, but all reviews about their previous releases had a positive tone. Given this, I did not hesitate to dive into Φθορά. This was one of the better decisions in my life. Okay, the opener remains mysteriously vapid. It is one of these songs that come and do not stink, but they are forgotten as soon as their last tine has faded away. But 'Libation Of Blood', the second track of the album, immediately corrects the first impression. The Greek squadron of death opens the gates to the truly barren landscapes of their realm of Nordic-influenced black metal for the first time. This track is a pure musical dictatorship and far away from far from sparing anyone with its sinister, breakneck speed and destructive nature. Its best element is the sick guitar tones that show up at 2:37. They accompany the lead guitar in an eerie manner and give the entire track a pretty insane, almost psychopathic touch. No doubt, this song must be considered as the first highlight of Φθορά.

While the production appears as the professional edition of the one that plays its part in making “Transilvanian Hunger” an all-time classic of the genre, the musical approach of the quintet delivers more nuances than Darkthrone back in 1994. A live event with them and their compatriots of Sad would be a musically homogeneous evening. Nonetheless, Sørgelig are able to create their own pestilential odour, not least because of the variable vocals. Usually, the lead singer focuses on the typical, soul-eating nagging and screaming, but a few commanding clean lines and spooky high-pitched screams also show up. 'Throne Of The Depths' unites all these different facets of the vocals, but this is just one reason why this track is also among the most recommendable of the album. It’s a perfect balance between straightness and complexity and the constantly strong guitar lines contribute the lion’s share to the enormous quality of this dynamic and extremely energetic piece. By this point at the latest, towards the middle of the work, the uncharismatic opener is forgotten.

Sørgelig do not reinvent the wheel. The fascination of their music is not based on innovation but on the combination of musical excellence and stylistic purity of their approach. Of course, black thrash is a very cool and casual bastard, but generally speaking, black metal should not be diluted by alien influences. The genre has its own magical core. In order to keep its magic, it will hopefully never be fully explored; but it spreads its intriguing vibrations restlessly and the formation from the cradle of European culture is able to catch these vibrations and turn them into violent music of a noble, partly smooth yet always devastating kind. The artwork underlines their firmly defined positioning. Naturally, one can say that the artwork is simple-minded or nearly ridiculous, but those who hold this opinion haven’t understood anything about the aesthetics of black metal.

The second half of the album consists of the strong '...Of Wrath And Pyre' and 'Inexorable Grey' which is a great opus whose opening guitar melody reminds me of Germany’s Desaster. The piano in the non-metallic title track guarantees more horror than the last five King Diamond albums together and an epic and (at the end) atmospheric yet mostly brutal and massive final song closes the gates to this wasteland of human abysses again. More than 42 minutes of black metallic bestiality left me impressed. I mean you can make a tourist trip to Greece without visiting the Acropolis, but maybe it feels incomplete. And you can listen to new black metals from Greece without giving Φθορά a chance. The result would be the same.

Rating: 8.4 out of 10

Review by Alex on October 6, 2024.

Sørgelig – a name that did not occur on my radar so far, but all reviews about their previous releases had a positive tone. Given this, I did not hesitate to dive into Φθορά. This was one of the better decisions in my life. Okay, the opener remains mysteriously vapid. It is one of these songs that come and do not stink, but they are forgotten as soon as their last tine has faded away. But 'Libation Of Blood', the second track of the album, immediately corrects the first impression. The Greek squadron of death opens the gates to the truly barren landscapes of their realm of Nordic-influenced black metal for the first time. This track is a pure musical dictatorship and far away from far from sparing anyone with its sinister, breakneck speed and destructive nature. Its best element is the sick guitar tones that show up at 2:37. They accompany the lead guitar in an eerie manner and give the entire track a pretty insane, almost psychopathic touch. No doubt, this song must be considered as the first highlight of Φθορά.

While the production appears as the professional edition of the one that plays its part in making “Transilvanian Hunger” an all-time classic of the genre, the musical approach of the quintet delivers more nuances than Darkthrone back in 1994. A live event with them and their compatriots of Sad would be a musically homogeneous evening. Nonetheless, Sørgelig are able to create their own pestilential odour, not least because of the variable vocals. Usually, the lead singer focuses on the typical, soul-eating nagging and screaming, but a few commanding clean lines and spooky high-pitched screams also show up. 'Throne Of The Depths' unites all these different facets of the vocals, but this is just one reason why this track is also among the most recommendable of the album. It’s a perfect balance between straightness and complexity and the constantly strong guitar lines contribute the lion’s share to the enormous quality of this dynamic and extremely energetic piece. By this point at the latest, towards the middle of the work, the uncharismatic opener is forgotten.

Sørgelig do not reinvent the wheel. The fascination of their music is not based on innovation but on the combination of musical excellence and stylistic purity of their approach. Of course, black thrash is a very cool and casual bastard, but generally speaking, black metal should not be diluted by alien influences. The genre has its own magical core. In order to keep its magic, it will hopefully never be fully explored; but it spreads its intriguing vibrations restlessly and the formation from the cradle of European culture is able to catch these vibrations and turn them into violent music of a noble, partly smooth yet always devastating kind. The artwork underlines their firmly defined positioning. Naturally, one can say that the artwork is simple-minded or nearly ridiculous, but those who hold this opinion haven’t understood anything about the aesthetics of black metal.

The second half of the album consists of the strong '...Of Wrath And Pyre' and 'Inexorable Grey' which is a great opus whose opening guitar melody reminds me of Germany’s Desaster. The piano in the non-metallic title track guarantees more horror than the last five King Diamond albums together and an epic and (at the end) atmospheric yet mostly brutal and massive final song closes the gates to this wasteland of human abysses again. More than 42 minutes of black metallic bestiality left me impressed. I mean you can make a tourist trip to Greece without visiting the Acropolis, but maybe it feels incomplete. And you can listen to new black metals from Greece without giving Φθορά a chance. The result would be the same.

Rating: 8.4 out of 10

Review by Michael on November 24, 2021.

Two ghostly wolves keep a watch in front of a crypt that is surrounded by woods and invite the listener to a haunting trip into the deepest depths of what evil Chile spawned out the last years. The third full-length album by Force Of Darkness – Twilight Of Dark Illumination released via the German label Iron Pegasus is a really blackened trip into the South American and European metal history.

The hellish trio delivers unbelievably fast, relentless and neck breaking black metal which is here and there enriched with some fierce thrash metal parts. From the very start of 'Retribution Of The Crowned Chaos' the band doesn't take any prisoners and attacks immediately. No intro, no acoustic stuff, only sheer bludgeoning. Melodies are quite secondary on this release, what is primary is the speed and the savagery of the tracks. Tracks like 'Absolute Verb Of Chaos And Darkness' or 'Sons Of Hypocrisy' are just brutal, ultra-fast and without any breaks or tempo changes and let the spirit of bands like Sarcofago, Nifelheim or Volcano live up.

On the other hand, there are some tracks that are more varied with some catchy and repetitive riffs and notable melodies ('Athame's Wrath' and 'Metempsychosis') where the thrash influences from bands like Slayer (who else?) appear quite obviously. A very surprising 'Choronzon's Desire' is a slow, creeping and dark track which lives from the simple riffs and the hypnotic drums. The spoken words make it almost appear like an incantation. But the most outstanding track is the album closer 'Darkness Shall Prevail'. Here you can find all the already mentioned trademarks combined into one single track. Catchy melodies, fast riffs, great guitar solos and a lot of evil and darkness in the vocals (the title tells so…) makes it fun to listen to it because of its high recognition value. Don't get me wrong, the other tracks are fun listening to too but this one is the top-notch track for me.

The vocals on Twilight Of Dark Illumination are kept quite dark, almost death metal like which creates an additional evilness to the brutal compositions. The drums are blasting like hell; I don't know what kind of animal these guys got as a drummer but my guess is that I would never want to get in a fight with him. The guitar riffs are unbelievably fast and played very clean and the bass is kept quite well in the background but always appears when it is necessary.

If you like high speed black thrash metal like the aforementioned bands or newer ones like Destroyer 666 or Slaughtbbath this is a highly recommended album for you.

Rating: 8.3 out of 10

Review by Michael on November 24, 2021.

Two ghostly wolves keep a watch in front of a crypt that is surrounded by woods and invite the listener to a haunting trip into the deepest depths of what evil Chile spawned out the last years. The third full-length album by Force Of Darkness – Twilight Of Dark Illumination released via the German label Iron Pegasus is a really blackened trip into the South American and European metal history.

The hellish trio delivers unbelievably fast, relentless and neck breaking black metal which is here and there enriched with some fierce thrash metal parts. From the very start of 'Retribution Of The Crowned Chaos' the band doesn't take any prisoners and attacks immediately. No intro, no acoustic stuff, only sheer bludgeoning. Melodies are quite secondary on this release, what is primary is the speed and the savagery of the tracks. Tracks like 'Absolute Verb Of Chaos And Darkness' or 'Sons Of Hypocrisy' are just brutal, ultra-fast and without any breaks or tempo changes and let the spirit of bands like Sarcofago, Nifelheim or Volcano live up.

On the other hand, there are some tracks that are more varied with some catchy and repetitive riffs and notable melodies ('Athame's Wrath' and 'Metempsychosis') where the thrash influences from bands like Slayer (who else?) appear quite obviously. A very surprising 'Choronzon's Desire' is a slow, creeping and dark track which lives from the simple riffs and the hypnotic drums. The spoken words make it almost appear like an incantation. But the most outstanding track is the album closer 'Darkness Shall Prevail'. Here you can find all the already mentioned trademarks combined into one single track. Catchy melodies, fast riffs, great guitar solos and a lot of evil and darkness in the vocals (the title tells so…) makes it fun to listen to it because of its high recognition value. Don't get me wrong, the other tracks are fun listening to too but this one is the top-notch track for me.

The vocals on Twilight Of Dark Illumination are kept quite dark, almost death metal like which creates an additional evilness to the brutal compositions. The drums are blasting like hell; I don't know what kind of animal these guys got as a drummer but my guess is that I would never want to get in a fight with him. The guitar riffs are unbelievably fast and played very clean and the bass is kept quite well in the background but always appears when it is necessary.

If you like high speed black thrash metal like the aforementioned bands or newer ones like Destroyer 666 or Slaughtbbath this is a highly recommended album for you.

Rating: 8.3 out of 10