Five Pointed Tongue

I believe that here lies one of the lost classics of contemporary Bay Area metal. Four people from rather disparate musical backgrounds and scenes got together and formed a band who's sound combines some of the best aspects of melodic black/death metal and technical thrash, while maintaining a distinctive San Francisco flavor. The melodic black/death aspect comes more in the form of tones and moods (the haunting, icy chord progressions you might hear in Dissection) than in technicality, as there are no blast beats to be found. The instrumental execution of the instruments is more akin to the late 80's technical thrash and proto-death bands of the Bay Area. Some have cited Metallica's ...And Justice For All as a touchstone in this case, which I agree with partially, in the aspect of epic song structures, and labyrinthine twisting and turning series of changes. But ...And Justice is a harsh, bleak atmosphere, a cold, metallic beat down, a bludgeoning of riffs. Saros seems to have mastered a greater degree of subtlety here, dynamics and hooks which intrigue you and draw you into the song before bringing down the axe.

The best aspect of Saros' song structuring might be their ability to introduce the simple building blocks of their song themes early on, as a slab riff stonehenge, then building that theme up to a twisting tower of Babel by the middle of the song. This technique begins straightaway with the opening song, the simple intro to In Arctic Exile. The main melodic theme is introduced as plodding Yeti stomp, before being ratcheted up into a tremolo picked black metal riff that cuts like frostbite and dark despair. An excellent point that was made in Saros' demo review by glenhetfield was the riffs sometimes have an epic/triumphant quality which is rare in this brand of metal, and set them apart from some of their apparent influences. The best example would be the towering, almost classic rock sounding intro to Sleeping Beast. Epic, stomping... could in an ancient world have come from a Scott Gorham or Duane Allman trapped in icy Norwegian citadel.

The vocals are pretty much standard death metal across the board, except for the few moments when Leila glosses over the top of the heavy shit with some clean melodic parts. The creative use of a clean melodic vocal hook (the best example coming about halfway through In Arctic Exile, in which a clean verse builds to a high crescendo and then flutters away, and we are again assaulted by heaviness and growls) pairs with strategic placement of epic, victorious riffs to create compositions that go above and beyond brutality and get stuck in your head. Likewise for the beginning section of Collapse of Tower.

The playing of all band members is very tight across the board, with dual guitars locked in, Leila and Ben sharing duties on well executed solos and leads. At first listen, I found the sound of the drums to be a little strange: very upfront and natural, especially the bass drums, which sound loose and almost slappy. Really, it's more that drums sound strange in the context of this style of music, where usually everything is triggered and EQd into a clicky, monotonous nightmare. What you have here is the relaxed recording style found in old Death and Autopsy recordings, but with much tighter playing. You can hear every kick hit and tom fill that Sam plays, and he doesn't disappoint, excellently matching the staccato guitar patterns in F-Sub Zero, and ripping the skins up with amazing kick and toms fills when the heavy part starts in Origins.

Lyrics are pretty much what you'd expect, bleak black/death fare, seeming to deal mainly with ancient histories, mythologies, and time traveling through dream portals in the mind. The power of nature and ancient deities is expressed, though no specific beings are mentioned (Satan, Odin or otherwise). Almost Neurosis-sque at parts, moods of gloomy storms and glimpses back on the death of ancient belief systems and questioning the power and role of nature and god(s).

The record flows well from beginning to end, balancing technicality and catchiness, as well as heaviness and softer interludes to great effect, with a consistent mood of confused, frantic struggle and confrontation of mysterious unknowns from this world or perhaps one beyond? I'm surprised that I'm the first one to review this on here, and I wouldn't normally give a local contemporary release such a high rating, but I know it is justified because I have listened to this album so many times and still am not bored by it. I keep coming back to it, as a completely reliable satisfying listen. I often find my self humming the riffs, or tapping out the kick drum patterns on tabletops involuntarily. An overlooked classic of Bay Area metal, highly recommended.

One nagging question that I have though is, why does everyone (the band included, it seems) insist on calling this an EP!? It's almost too long to even fit on a 33 rpm 12". Yes, it's merely five songs deep, but in the glory days of vinyl, this would have been a full blooded, monolithic FULL LENGTH, no questions asked. Though perhaps short changed by petty definitions, It will always be an album to me.