Sarke - Endo Feight

 

It's Norway's Constitution Day - so it seems appropriate to write about Sarke, one of my favorite Darkthrone affiliated projects. Their new album, Endo Feight is the bands eighth and once again features Darkthrones Nocturno Culto in another step forward in a uniquely thoughtful musical journey. This group is a black metal force, whose career goes back to 2009. Their black metal is a uniquely miserable, discomfiting and twisted take on the genre. The bands approach throughout is off kilter and twisted, speaking to their deep mastery of black metal as both a music and mindset.

Sarke are unafraid to play with expectations and do so throughout Endo Feight. From the horns featured in the album intro to the pained, groaning vocals that layer over top of melancholic guitar lines in the album closer. What the band does successfully though is create a very distinct vibe, a very distinct vision and a sound that is going to consistently draw listeners ever deeper into the magic and misery that Sarke unveil on Endo Feight. This is a record that is just as comfortable luring you into a tremolo picked black metal riff as it is indulging listeners with a synthesizer solo, and doing everything in between. But through it all Sarke never sound like a hodgepodge of sounds, but rather a clearly defined, very weird vibe. 

Endo Feight is a thriller, any way you slice it. This is black metal done with a clear passion and vision. It's black metal done in a way that pushes at the edges of the genre whilst simultaneously being led by one of the genres greatest sculptors. Sarke understand the twisted nature of the genre better than almost anyone and their willingness to meld it into their own vision on Endo Feight makes for some wonderfully addictive listening. 

Pre-order the album! 

https://soulsellerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/endo-feight