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Sirrah: Acme
11/08/10 || Butt-Beard
Let me introduce you to Sirrah, a Polish band. I guess that’s a new name for a lot of the readers here at Global Domination. The reason for that may be the fact that Sirrah only released two albums, with “Acme” being not only essential Sirrah, but essential doom/death metal. Sirrah is a hard band to put in a specific genre as they take their inspiration from many different genres of music and many eras of music. Originally released in 1995, that should appeal to fans of bands like Paradise Lost or My Dying Bride, because that’s what it sounds like. Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride with a little bit of Ulver “Bergtatt” thrown in.
The growled vocals have an unquestionable quality, almost, almost, as good as Lee Dorian’s work in early Cathedral. In fact they are so fucking ace that they’ll send shivers of ice down your spine. In contrast to these brutal cries from the grave we have female vocals (sounds like a contrast used very successfully by a band that’s very popular around here). If all bands had used the female vocals the way Sirrah does, not to mention the pure quality of the singer, I would have a bigger hard-on for female vocals than Lord K, but since (at least in my opinion) 90% of all male-female vocals tradeoff’s are cheesy/horrendous.
Enough about the vocals. Paradise Lost’s “Gothic” and My Dying Bride’s “Turn Loose The Swans” work as a reference point but Sir-Ah don’t sound as depressive as My Dying Bride or as dark as Paradise Lost. This is most evident on “Panacea”. This song shows a band not taking themselves overly serious and it’s up to you whether that’s a good or bad thing. Personally I find the song a little misplaced and it doesn’t fit the mood of the album. The first four songs share that same Peaceville doom feel I mentioned earlier. Only “A.U. Tomb” fails to bring a smile to my face out of those four. By all means not a bad song, but compared to the others it bleaks; subjective speaking of course. Sirrah doesn’t down tune their guitars to the maximum, but they certainly found their own sound on this record. Namely, an amalgamation of all that is great about the early Peaceville doom.
“Iridium” is one of my favourite songs on “Acme”, and it is without doubt the heaviest song of the album. After “Iridium” the record becomes more gothic influenced, here the female singer really gets the chance to show her brilliance. Unfortunately there are also some weak spots on “Pillbox Impressions”. The guitar solo/harmony that’s played in the background is out of tune and the violin also sounds sour on different occasions as well. The fact that this song still manages to be good may be the evidence for that song writing is as important as pure playing skills. I mentioned “Panacea” before so I’ll go on to my favourite track of the album, “Bitter Seas”. I don’t like using the word beautiful but that’s the only word I find that describe this song. All things good about Sirrah and this record peak in this song. The violin does it all right, the vocalists deliver their best performances and the guitars don’t play a sour note. “In The Final Moment” closes the album in a good way, although some of the FUCKEN FALSE guitar has sneaked back in. However it has that awesome bass riff at the beginning. Listen for it and be amazed.
Since I mentioned that “Acme” have some weak spots it’s important to tell that the vast majority of the record is a quality product. I for sure will tolerate some false notes (Lord K knows I’ve reviewed worse shit in my career here) if only the songs themselves are good. I can easily recommend this one to every one that likes some death/doom in their metal diet.
- Information
- Released: 1996
- Label: Metal Mind
- Website: Sirrah MySpace
- Band
- Tom: vocals
- Maggie: vocals
- Roger: guitars
- Matt: guitars
- Christopher: bass
- Chris: keyboards
- Magdalena: violin
- Michael: drums
- Tracklist
- 1. Acme
- 2. Passover 1944
- 3. On the Verge
- 4. A.U Tomb
- 5. Iridium
- 6. Pillbox Impressions
- 7. Panacea
- 8. Bitter Seas
- 9. In the final moment
