### Sorgeldom: Inner receivings

#### 04/08/10 || GardensTale

Oh, no. Oh, fucking ouch. Goddammit, what the fuck. K described this label-sent album as “blackened thrash, shoegaze, rock etc.” So naturally. I’m expecting a variant on Alcest, which would have been fucken rad, because Alcest are pure and undiluted metal gorgeousness. I’m not even hugely into black metal and I still love their new disc.

So saying I might have overstretched my expectations ain’t fucken bullshit. But this just… Shit. I guess this might work for some people. I can imagine people enjoying this. Even a part that sounds like it was recorded in a toilet halfway down the first fucken track, I can see some people going “My god, it’s so fucken bleak! I love it!” Well, I’m all for bleak, but I’m also in favor of you bleaching your ass before you go fuck yourself.

So, there is a way in which the album makes sense. Which is the only reason it’s getting a score in the top half of the spectrum. It does have an atmosphere, it has a face, so to speak. But my fucken word what an ungodly mess it creates getting there.

What you get here are cycled black metal tremolo riffs with a slightly thrashy sound, drowned in reverb, with a variety of voices like a scream that is not bathtub drowned but fucking ocean abyss drowned in reverb like it’s a barrel in a tunnel in a church, or a clean wail that sounds like a constipated monk.

I have yet to understand even a single fucken word that’s sung, the screams in Anaal Nathrakh are more intelligible. So I can’t tell you anything about any of the fucken subjects, but from the sound of things, it’s probably a lonely Satanist on a lonely plain of ice with a lonely storm blowing lonely snowflakes around. That or anal sex, because that’s the only association I have with “Inner receivings”. They cannot miss an innuendo like this when naming the album. It has to be on purpose.

So yeah, apparently, reverb and muffled drumming are the keys to making a bleak album, because for all its cheapness, it does work. This makes you feel very, very somber and alone. But musically, it’s still an ungodly mess, as the riffs don’t seem to make sense, the massive reverb drowns everything together, and there doesn’t seem to be any point or structure to the music, not even in a proggy flow-of-thought kind of way.

So for who is this album then? I’ll tell you; this is for writers who feel way too happy for the death scene of a main character and need to set the mood without being distracted by music that actually makes sense. I cannot for the life of me figure Sorgeldom out completely, and maybe I’m just missing a click. But if atmosphere is the only thing that matters to you in music, by all means, give it a shot. I’ll be looking for something with a similar atmosphere that has firmer feet in the ground musically. Maybe I should spin Alcest again.

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Frostscald
- Website: Sorgeldom MySpace
- Band
- Dr. Sunden: vocals
- Jodöden: guitars
- J. Marklund: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. I Kloaken Lättar Vi Ankar
- 02. The Cold Empty Void
- 03. Vintern Var Hård
- 04. Dårskapens Karneval
- 05. Summer Day (Slowdive Cover)
- 06. Inner Receivings
- 07. Drömmarnas Galax
- 08. I Väntan På Telefonsamtalet
- 09. Dyk