The War Manifesto

There seems to be some confusion here. How on Earth can there be a ‘[The] War Manifesto’, when the music associated with it refers to nothing but a self-centered apathetic state of mind, which prevents the person from doing anything meaningful. Such a pamphlet seems to be a contradiction of the basic outstretches of the subgenre’s intention. Let those who suffer from arachnophobia dance with spiders, those with acrophobia climb the Burj Khalifa and those with musicophobia take a trip through the worlds of harsh noise.

Sår – the name has its origin in one of Sortsind’s tracks – offer depressive black metal and even though the production is at such as to make the music listenable, the song writing is pretty bland offers nothing outside the basic elements of this genre. Some melody is played endlessly, repeated like there would be no tomorrow, while on top of it the vocals create a disturbing counterpoint. This appears distorted and is rather limited to some sort of screaming, but, and this should be emphasised, their degree in comparison with the parts of the instrument remains in a tolerable region. Aside from these aspects, an additional one might give the listener a hard time: the strange sound of the instruments. To hear a drum-computer is nothing new, but experience it in this electronically manipulated and sterile way, which would also be true for the guitars, makes the listening experience endurance nonetheless. The reasons why such can be found here are obvious, but it is still important to mention them.

‘The War Manifesto’ is not bad; it is just without any meaningful identity. Four tracks (plus a cover, an intro and an outro) appear on this recording, but all of them sound exchangeable. The listener does not get the idea that the band attempts to produce anything fresh or new. Generally, the music has some nice pace, a dark atmosphere and is even without graven flaws, but also with nothing that would motivate the listener to give it another spin. Maybe the only reason to recommend Sår is their origin; Iran. Therefore, fans who want to reach out to bands from this small and definitely troubled scene, might want to give this output a try; yet, they should not set up the bar of expectations too high.

Based on a review originally written for ‘A dead spot of light (Number 14)’:
http://www.archive.org/details/ADeadSpotOfLight...Number14