To kiss the skull of the departed… out of respect for those who’d finished the race. — Having nearly completed construction on an ambitious tombstone three decades ago legendary underground New York-based thrashing death/doom metal quartet Sorrow return to etch into stone the eulogy for humanity that’d been burning in the back of their skulls for seeming eternity. We can consider ‘Death of Sorrow‘ said epitaph, the second full-length album they’d been preparing for back in 1993 realized today in the exacting style of the classic death/doom metal one would expect from their name. Returned from the grave in contentious times not unlike the reality they were up against back in the day, there is some cyclic cruelty served here as these older and wizened folks cut away at dormant lamentations as if they’d never been left behind. This time around all hope is lost, prophecies and warnings haven’t been heeded and today their nihilism feels deeper justified as only bitterness remains.

Cyanic Death formed between five Long Island-based teenagers circa 1988 before they’d changed their name to Apparition soon after, jamming away at exactly the sort of charged thrash metal one would expect in the late 80’s. Their original strike at it had a hit of crossover in its fairly simple riff progressions as they’d eventually worked up steam enough for their first demo tape (‘Demo I‘, 1988) which they’d quickly followed up with the better known ‘Human Fear‘ (1989) tape which’d attracted attention from a then just starting out Relapse Records. The style of the band had evolved into a more distinct form of thrashing death metal which’d soon aim to stray from the grindcore and brutal, thrashing death metal of their surroundings towards a slower style. The peak accomplishment of their first few years was certainly the ‘Eternally Forgotten/Curse the Sunrise‘ 7″ where we get the pure death metal character of the band as the unique style of the guitarists (for their time) began to manifest up to a more professional standard of performance on tape. The pre-Sorrow days of the band offer a sort of thrash ’til death narrative for their emergence into their own while also making some argument for their value next to associated groups like Pyrexia and Suffocation nearby. Once they’d changed their name to Sorrow it’d been a series of good and very bad times, a haul of hard lessons to learn.

Though I don’t think Sorrow had a particular angle in mind at all times beyond whatever’d sounded heaviest in the rehearsal room they’d definitely figured out a uniquely thrashing form of death/doom metal before those sorts of niches were squarely defined. They’d been one of only just a few bands to take more than a superficial approach to their slower and mid-paced sections of their work and apply traditional doom metal to that idea, think of something like Death‘s ‘Leprosy‘ with the demented tarantella of Dream Death and the lamentation of 80’s Trouble in hand as well. Their sound had appealed to R/C Records (when it was the U.S. division of Roadrunner Records) and certainly stood out among the Florida death metal and classic thrash metal exports from the label at the time when they’d landed on their first mLP (‘Forgotten Sunrise‘, 1991). It was a great record, an original sound which is still to this day overlooked by younger folks seeking to revive traditional death metal’s doomed roots. Anyhow, that whole opportunity had been scuffed badly for reasons both within and beyond their control. I believe ‘Forgotten Sunrise‘ was intended as a debut full-length recorded by a core trio but guitarist/vocalist Andy Marchione was unfortunately in a devastating car wreck around that time and it seems what we’d gotten was what’d been recorded before it happened.

The band pressed on, from what I understand still determined and intensive with their practice/rehearsal schedule. I mean it goes without saying that the high standards and original thoughts that’d appeared in death metal back in the day were a mixture of the still murky sub-genre zeitgeist having not yet formed as well as the work ethic of ex-thrasher musicianship pushing bands to fine-tune and put in the work. They’d have to have worked hard since they’d managed their classic, and certainly one of my favorites in the early death/doom metal space, debut full-length album in less than a year. ‘Hatred and Disgust‘ (1992) was the sort of album I’ve pitched to friends for a few decades now as if ‘Spiritual Healing‘ and ‘Forest of Equilibrium‘ had merged in truth. Today its sound is often compared to Beyond Belief and Winter, though those are bands from entirely different inspirational spheres. Sorrow have long been the addendum to many conversations about early death/doom metal where I get the chance to appeal to folks who actually like riffs with a brain attached and lyrics which still carried their hardcore punk/thrasher-level socially conscious aptitudes into the poetic bleakness which (again) few folks had yet fully pulled into death metal with. So, even if that album is well-loved in ‘old school’ death metal spaces today it had its challenges in terms of lacking promotion and (again) questionable graphic design contributing to Roadrunner ultimately dropping the band in 1993 while they were already at work on a third release.

Spirits were low, side-projects were in the works, and while Sorrow drifted apart that year they’d basically completed LP number two, a set of six songs which make up the bulk of ‘Death of Sorrow‘ today. If you were keen enough to have heard the final rehearsal tape from the band (sans vocals, from what I recall) which was recorded back in 1993 then you’ll have some idea as to what this album ultimately accomplishes in terms of making good on that original material. So, to be clear these are songs written in 1992 and recorded in 2022-2023 by the full line-up of the band as it was back in 1992 and perhaps this is why this record smokes as hard as it does, since they’ve not pulled away from or mutilated the original style of the band. There are however a couple of extra pieces included here, including a re-recording of “Hidden Fear” as well as an outro piece, but I’ll mostly consider the accomplishment of this album its vivification of songs we’d only heard sparse rehearsal instrumentals over the years. Imagine if Ripping Corpse returned with the old line-up and hit us with a complete yet respectfully un-fucked version of their unreleased 1992 album? From my point of view this release is -that- big of a deal and that much of an accomplishment.

Familiarizing yourself with the brief ~five year history of Sorrow in the late 80’s and early 90’s should build up expectations well enough and in truth the songcraft found on ‘Death of Sorrow‘ more-or-less follows the general speed and fission of ‘Hatred and Disgust‘ as a direct follow-up. Granted if you have the template, and I don’t believe the 1993 rehearsal tape is readily available online any longer, you’ll notice that this album’s structure and guitar tone are framed by some of the choices they’d set in stone back in ’92/’93. Needless to say we’ve got a riff intensive, long forgotten style of death/doom metal and a woulda-been underground classic to pick through herein as these folks finally give answer as to what could have been; The flesh returns to the old bones with the early Penance-esque snap and chug movement of “Doom The World” as it cuts toward the more familiar verse riff and expands upon the fixated rhythmic thought, reassuring these are the same hands and well, verifiably the same songs they were working on back in the day. While the mix/master (per Marchione and guitarist Brett Clarin) is intentionally guitar forward, matching the burliness of previous recordings and the style of the early 90’s they’ve achieved a strong bass guitar tone/presence which is more than capable of interjecting and busting through the wall on a few select pieces (“Remembered Eternally”, for example) while the space occupied avoids losing the detail of all four performers. For all of the potential fail-states that might’ve arisen after thirty years we jump right into this album feeling immediately at home in their miserable discontent.

“Judicial Falsity” is really where the tornado hits my mind, the active surge of the music finding its chugging hill to climb and the distemper of the lyrics pulling my ear to the side. This particular song reminds me of a certain era of Master to some degree due to its thrashing edge and main riff progression but also for the cadence of the vocals but it is a small note that’d caught my ear. For my own taste the album really heats up from that point with “Remembered Eternally” bringing this righteous combination of Bolt Thrower-esque leads a pronounced bass guitar tone pooling beyond the mid-point and some of the more traditional doom metal styled riffs on the record. Right along those lines is “Required Irrationality” a sort of ear worm for its wriggled-at opening riff and narrative vocals which one expects from Sorrow as part of the signature their first two official recordings featured. I’m not sure I have any particularly deep takeaway from those six unearthed main pieces, they’re all class and speak to the band’s legacy with complete reverence and arrive in good taste for real death metal. I guess the note observation I’d make is that if this record had come out per the means they’d had back in 1993 I’d have expected something even more progressive in nature, a few pieces (“Someone Else’s Blood”) have an extra heady touch to their refrains that folks would’ve compared to, eh, Death or something like that back in the day (as folks did with ‘Considered Dead‘, etc.)

A foolproof solution to unfinished business. — Sorrow‘ve smartly stuck to the script so to speak, presenting ‘Death of Sorrow‘ with every bit of the right ‘old school’ tradition behind it from the folks who’d generated that tradition themselves. By not relying upon stand-ins and session musicians they completely avoid the usual ‘comeback’ irritations one would expect to arise from music left for dead in the past. Utilizing the knowledge and wisdom gained over the last few decades while having a clear vision for this recording from the outset has paid off for me, the longtime fan with a death metal record that sounds as if it were a remaster of an old classic. The re-recording of “Hidden Fear” is solid but a bit of an interruption at the end of the album, I’d just as well have cut right to the outro provided by “Funeral March”. Otherwise I couldn’t be more stoked on this record delivering upon a “What if…?” that is nearly as old as I am. A very high recommendation.

[NOTE: Allow for a bit of bias here as I am not only a longtime fan of ‘Hatred and Disgust‘ in particular but also recently worked with guitarist Brett Clarin to release his solo project Journey Into Darkness‘ third LP back in 2021.]

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