Obscure Old Remains

Old-school death metal Finns, Sadistik Forest haven’t been all that consistent with release schedules throughout their almost 15 year history, though Obscure Old Remains follows up Morbid Majesties a great deal faster than it followed on from Death, Doom, Radiation. On the other hand, this is only an EP and took 3 years, so who knows how long until the next full-length. In the intermittent years, a new drummer has arrived in the form of Jimi Myöhänen, who is also active in several other bands like the rest of this quartet. On the evidence of these 4 cuts, it makes no difference what timeframe or collective the band use: Sadistik Forest will still do their shit in the same manner as Purtenance and Grave before them - dirty, obscure, and nasty.

The choking thickness of the guitar tone confirms the good judgement in naming Obscure Old Remains right away, this sounding indeed like a bog body being dragged up through the mud in all its disgusting decrepitude. Enough attention has been paid to the dull thump of the drums that the album gains power from its rhythms, but not so much that it cleans up the movements of songs like ‘Barbarian’, which remains suitably barbaric. In terms of actual songcraft, the mid-length cuts run through quite a few sections of riffing and keep the pace high, while ‘Nihil’ and ‘Waters Black’ switch between doomier grooves and ravaging faster riffing, the former achieving instrumental memorability by playing cheeky rhythmic tricks at a breakdown and then piling into the longest section of rolling riffage on the EP, replete with glimmering solo.

The overall quality of this short-player is only questionable in the light of its quantity, since fans may consider 19 minutes of new music meagre return for their long anticipation. I view Obscure Old Remains as a fun blast through some nice old-school conceits, and I’d imagine that’s how Sadistik Forest look at it too. This isn’t intended to be too groundbreaking or expansive, just a lot of grim fun. That may sound contradictory, but these deathly Finns understand the oxymoron perfectly well.