Presented as a dialogue torn between two minds seemingly equal in their resentment of malign terrestrial existence and unthinkable abysm alike this fifth full-length album from Uppsala, Sweden-based melodic blackened death metal quintet SARCASM once again links concreted past with amorphous present as their sustained resuscitation continues its trajectory in escalation. Powered by harder kicking speed and gloom stricken lows ‘Mourninghoul‘ refines the scope and the impact of their classic-yet-outlier bound approach, polishing off a bit more dust and accessing some old and soaring atmospheric font in passage. The result is arguably less hook intensive but lacks none of the spectacle available to past works thanks to an increasingly well-rounded stylistic reach and crystalline render.

If there was any one Swedish death metal band that’d folded in the mid-90’s without realizing their potential it was Sarcasm and it’d always blown my mind that ‘A Touch of the Burning Red Sunset‘ and the ’til 2011 unreleased LP ‘Burial Dimensions‘ (1994) weren’t torn from the crypts sooner than their more hyped up 2015/2016 rebirth in preamble for a 2017 return. There was nothing else like that at the time, though a song or two felt like it had some of the same adventurous yet refined melodicism of ‘The Somberlain‘ or ‘In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead‘ their work was voluminous, atmospheric and yet anchored by a very classic sounding Swedish melodic black/death drum technique and recording. I’ve likely said as much in past reviews for their previous three full-lengths since reforming but those ’94 recordings still feel impossible to replicate and unlike anything else, a surreal and before-its-time event. Since reforming the main songwriter of the band has been Peter Laitinen of Imperial Domain and to start it seems the task was essentially pick up where they left off and find the logical future-path from this point, a difficult task to say the least but one that they’d gotten exactly right on ‘Within the Sphere of Ethereal Minds‘ (2017) and took to their own level on the exceptional but quite different ‘Esoteric Tales of the Unserene‘ (2019) which’d placed at #26 on my Top 50 of 2019. At that point anything beyond this realization of that original potential, despite the sound of the band being very different thirty years later, was an abundance and an extension of that old feeling which we’d been denied decades ago.

The spirit of their gig has been well served in the years since and thus far they’ve been inspired to keep going and developing this new sound, now reaching the tenth year and fourth album of this new legacy. ‘Mourninghoul‘ essentially takes in the exploratory dynamism of 2022’s ‘Stellar Stream Obscured‘, which I’d again praised at the time of release and ranked at #38 on my 100 Best of 2022, and hones into a further refined vision, well-rounded in scope and dramatic in its delivery. The immediacy and tension of ‘Esoteric Tales of the Unserene‘ returns within pieces like opener “As Northern Gates Open”, which could’ve just as well opened that record yet the aesthetic and production values applied to these types of brutal, rush-paced rides have only intensified as the bands efforts accumulate one after another. In this sense ‘Mourninghoul‘ is the logical step beyond the previous effort, a process which ultimately finds Sarcasm‘s sound reclaiming some of its atmospherically charged roots and even calling upon some heavier death metal grooves along the way. The best example of this is probably “A Lucid Dream in the Paradigm Stream” where we get more than a hint of dark metal or, gothic doom feeling sparked in the midst of its greater arc. Pieces like this, especially “No Solace From Above” deeper in Side B, best realize the broadened range envisioned on the previous album and at this point this works well next to the dominant hand which pushes the thrashing melodic blackened death metal side of the band forth.

We’ve never gotten standard melodic death metal from Sarcasm and between the fast-paced riff driven style developed by Laitinen over the years and the addition of new drummer Jesper Ojala (Third Storm, ex-Morbid Illusion) we get the rush of a couple of somewhat technical, thrashing pieces up front. Between the very ‘North From Here‘-feeling break in the midst of aforementioned opener “As Northern Gates Open” and the diabolically crafted lines which pour from “Lifelike Sleep” we begin to feel the rush of speed back into their realm alongside some keyboard embellishments which recall the initial ’94 peak of the bands past. These two songs are enough to rouse longtime fans of the band but I’d argue there is plenty more depth to ‘Mourninghoul‘ beyond this point and the steeling salvo we start with is more for the sake of momentum and cutting a few inspired riffs, as such we are not entirely locked into this mode entirely. Passing into the darker dancing grooves of “Withered Memories of Souls We Mourn” changes the tone to a trudging-low gallop, a signature feeling from the band at this point and a fine example of a simple exaggerative gesture can feel like a hard turn within the moment-to-moment thrust of a record in this style.

Another clear standout and another surge of unruly speed “Dying Embers of Solitude” is smartly placed at the core of the album, the endpoint for Side A and as prime example of how bringing in a different drummer and recording situation can feel like a burst of energy, though I found nothing lacking in the work of Alvaro Svanerö in the previous two Sarcasm records. There is a trade-off made here in terms of developing a certain feeling and atmosphere versus pushing a very dense and directly melodic statement, this album might not have all of the rapid-fire hooks of their 2019 release but in some ways this song (again) sounds closer to the original concept of the band developed back in the day. They’ve carried this sound through this heightened mid-point on the full listen brilliantly, passing through the aforementioned lustre of “A Lucid Dream in the Paradigm Stream” and this is serves as the second act of the album before the grand exit is reached.

You’ve gotten the gist by now and might’ve been able to guess this already consistent band have held things together well and improved upon themselves with ‘Mourninghoul‘. In some sense this album brings some new and old ideas back into focus while refining beyond previous efforts, generally continuing along the lines of their past two releases and reaching a well representative work when all is said and done. If the goal has always been to take the classic hidden underground past of the band and reforge it into its own realm worth building upon then Sarcasm have once again proven this modus worthwhile in accumulating another fine release which builds upon the last. A high recommendation.

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