You could definitely pick up this latest full-length album from Seattle, Washington-based death metal trio NOROTH and figure they’re not about to overthink or over-serve their third pocket-slung hit of groove n’ filth as they crack away at a mean slow-kicking rhythmic clip of eight punkish (but bullied up) death metal songs within about ~24 minutes. And to be fair they -are- all about the thunder-churn on ‘Sacrificial Solace‘ but here they’ve gone back and reconsidered how their nauseated, hellish focus on downtuned and thrall tempo’d gig hits. Once again aiming for classicist death metal traits and ‘new old school’ functionality these folks’ve done well to dial their movements down to elephantine tremors, primally shot pulses which they’ve fashioned to embody a low-level sickness where imminent doom and dementia come heavy on the immerse and rarely, if ever, break sight lines on the morass of suffering depicted herein.

Formed as a trio circa 2019 Noroth‘s style has consistently focused on sludge-toned and mid-paced ‘old school’ inspired death metal with a heavy groove driven brand of riff carrying through each of their three albums to date. With some inspiration taken from death/doom metal as well as the slower heft of Cianide, Grave and Bolt Thrower their debut album (‘It Dwells Amongst Us‘, 2020) wasn’t half bad when I’d given short review of it but there were many, many bands pushing that style between about 2017-2021 and their work didn’t stand out all that much due to its straight forward nature. To make up for the lack of overt personality on thier debut album the much-improved follow up release (‘Harbinger‘, 2021) seemed to be more than willing to expand the reach of their craft, try some modern dummy shit out without losing sight of their intended level of “filth” and the simplicity of their death metal grooves. While the riffs themselves were still kinda blah here and there for my own taste they’d done well to expand upon that general framework when it counted, such as “Flayed Bodies” and/or “The Last Day”, where their longer doom oriented movements gave way to something more than hardcorish bashing-through. The longer any given song breached the three minute mark the greater the likelihood that it was one of the more unique ideas found on that particular album.

The hype surrounding this follow-up begs the question of whether they went even harder on their presentation or iterated on that same idea. — As it turns out, neither? Instead of traveling down the suggested path of increasingly structured and lengthier death/doom metal songs ‘Sacrificial Solace‘ goes in the opposite direction, aiming to reprise and refine the already extant hardcore punk/crust element of Noroth‘s sound by way of the extensive background (Busted Outlook, Ritual Control) of their new drummer Jeremy Meier (Abysmalist, Porphyrion, Veruta, Primal Rite et al.) who you should remember from seminal Seattle extreme crust-death group Sanctum. Their version of this vision steps away from the bopping grooves of the previous album and returns to the cavernous production values of their first, essentially moving back toward what is cool about death metal and avoiding the bopping metallic hardcore edge of things in favor of a sound fans of everything from Slugathor to Stormcrow should enjoy on a basal level.

They’ve kept it extra simple in terms of rhythms here on most pieces, for example the four count ride of title track “Sacrificial Solace” couldn’t be any more stripped down to the absolute basic bones of death metal groove. I’m not exactly losing brain cells in the process of listening but form and function too often take precedence over expression within the mud-slicked machinery of Noroth‘s moving parts and this ultimately hurts its longevity per my own taste. That doesn’t mean their work is devoid of invention or a personal touch but rather (the way I see it) a dispassionate, a bleak vision of miserable captivity characterizes the greater tonal intent. One of several rousing early Bolt Thrower-esque hammerers, “Pleading Depths” (see also: “Devoid of Grace”) arrives with energy that helps to bolster the mid-album transition with a shot of aggression which is just as quickly flattened by a vocal rant, striking a line right through the piece. This obscures the movement of the album while also bringing an interesting nuance to its quick execution which provides at least some evidence that they’re considering the smaller details beneath the grimy heft of their sound.

The big dumb grooves and the higher riff count events Noroth are bringing here exist in reasonable harmony and, as is the case with fellow Seattle-area grimers Re-Buried and Deconsecration, the uglier than thou punishment this level of focus provides pays off better in the context of a live setting, preferably a rainy day where everyone showed up in wet clothes with a field stripped cigarette in each pocket… Anyhow, there are some standout pieces here starting with the opening pair of the ‘pits of Hell are a sewer’-envisioned “Black Serpent” and the early Desecresy-level grinding of my favorite piece here, “Symphony of Decay”. That energizing statement isn’t gone forever but it definitely melts into the dismally boiling morass of the experience quickly and it was all over before they’d developed any serious spikes of interest beyond the first three or so songs. The gusto, the big ideas and the mind for details is mostly persistent to start but the momentum is set at a jogging stomp beyond “Bloodline” and rests there for the remainder of the full listen (again) ’til “Devoid of Grace” hits, running it back again.

Sometimes they’re levelling the whole block, other times they’re meeting a basal OSDM standard. — Much as I appreciate the straight forward nature of ‘Sacrificial Solace‘, and it is an above-average death metal record overall, its brevity hinders any “meaningful” developments to occur in the span of just over twenty minutes. If it’d been presented as an mLP and cut loose of a couple less vital pieces (“Adorned in Flesh”, for example) I believe it’d have been far more potent in putting Noroth‘s name out there as a bigger contender in the generally all-killer PNW arena though, fair enough of ‘Harbinger‘ had already served that purpose. As is, every second of this album counts though none of it amazes beyond the potential for a good show. Otherwise I appreciate the album artwork (via Thomas “Necromaniac” Westphal) and the overall render and sound design of the album wherein we get the murk and the misery of their chugging drift but none of the performances are actively scuffed, buried or oppressed. If your tastes lean towards pure death metal grooves, mid-paced death metal and the ‘new old school’ style this one should impress for its heinous chasmic sound and persistently sludge-chucking attack. A moderately high recommendation.

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