Sørgelig – Φθορά (Review)

Sørgelig are a Greek black metal band and this is their third album.

I love Isolert, and also really like Insanity Cult. Why do I mention that here? Simply because Sørgelig is made up of members of these two bands, (plus a guitarist who is in neither). I haven’t caught up with Sørgelig since 2018’s Apostate, but the band have been busy since then with EPs, a split, and second album. Φθορά is their third, and a great opportunity to become reacquainted with their brand of hostile malice.

Φθορά is a blistering assault of raw melodic darkness. The promo blurb mentions bands such as Behexen, Shining, Sargeist, and Dødsferd, and this is a good place to start from when approaching Sørgelig’s music.

These songs are darkness given blackened form. They’re misanthropic hymns to blood and devastation, razing the ground and salting the Earth with their abrasive presence alone. Theirs is an assault that’s mind-rending, wearing down the listener’s resistance to their venomous attacks with the relentless application of grim attrition.

Despite the inherent violence that manifests throughout Φθορά, it’s also an invocation of darkest, deepest atmosphere. The music is dense with esoteric mood. It’s driven by malignant intensity and possessed of a singular destructive will, yet ripe with a pervasive atmospheric saturation that sees every part of the album drip with malevolence.

The vocals, (courtesy of the singer of Isolert), are harsh and unforgiving. His performance in Sørgelig is far more unhinged and fanatical than it is in Isolert. It’s easy to imagine it’s a different singer actually, or at least a different version of the same. It’s almost as if he has strained at the bonds that normally hold him in place, and burst through the layers between worlds with unfettered maniacal glee.

For lovers of the darkest reaches of black metal’s underworld, yet without going so far as to become totally lost in the murk, Φθορά is a record that you must experience.

Very highly recommended.