Bogefod Sarke 2016 Indie Recordings Sarke are a Black Metal band hailing from Norway. The sound of Sarke has huge Black Metal overtones, but underneath Sarke has a tones of Death Metal and Thrash Metal making Sarke feel that they have so much more to offer than just Black Metal. Bogefod is the 4th studio album from Sarke and the follow up the 2013’s Aruagint. Bogefod follows in the footsteps of Aruagint with a similar sound and their 3rd release from a two piece to a full band featuring Sarke on bass, Nocturno Culto on vocals, Steinar Gundersen and Stian Kråbøl on the guitars and the drumming position filled by Terje Kråbøl. The production duties for Bogefod are once more handled by long time Sarke producer and friend of the band Lars Erik Westby who fully understands what Sarke is about and how to get the best sound out of a band who are on their 4th full release. Westby’s production is great and he has made Bogefod sound exceptionally well, sticking to the sound of Sarke without trying to make it anything else. The production that Westby gives the track Dawning is flawless, the way the guest female vocals of Beate Amundsen are beautiful and haunting, making Dawning easily one of the best tracks on Bogefod. As musicians, Sarke are exceptionally talented. The vocals of Nocturno Culto are as you would expect from Black Metal and Death Metal, his growl suits the music of Sarke well, being much more melodic than your standard growl. Sarke himself, even though he began drumming for the band, sticks exclusively to the bass, commanding the music like a gloomy conductor with long elongated bass notes at times feeling like Sarke are venturing into Doom Metal, such as on the Barrow of Torolv. The guitars of Gundersen and Kråbøl work very well together and their melodic passages played in The Wicked’s Transient Sleep help transform what could be classed as album filler into the forefront of Bogefod, the same can also be said of Burn and the beautiful acoustic picking of Dawning. Kråbøl keeps the drums sounding fresh, adding fills and time changes that keep Bogefod sounding fresh, it would be easy for Kråbøl to just blast beat his way through, yet it is the relative absence of Kråbøl doing this which helps Bogefod become a decent album. However, it is the keyboards on Bogefod which add an ambient and eerie feeling to many of the songs that makes Bogefod sound so good. The keyboards are not generally noticeable at first, but after a few listens, you can begin to appreciate what the keyboards are capable of bringing, not just to Bogefod, but to the overall sound of Sarke. Clocking in at just a mere 35 minutes, Bogefod feels that it is over before it has begun and that isn’t a bad thing. In a time where albums can be full to the brim or even worse, the double album, Bogefod offers an intricate slice of Black Metal that shows that it doesn’t need to push the time to over an hour. Bogefod is a decent album and if you’re a fan of Black Metal, it is definitely worth picking up. 7/10 Adam Alternation (Bergli/Gundersen/Kråbøl/Nymoen)
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