Sorgeldom – Inner Receivings (2010)

Today we have an interesting Black Metal band from Sweden with the name of Sorgeldom. We call this band’s music interesting because their sound has some of the Scandinavian Black Metal feel to it mixed with some experimental rock/shoegaze elements. The band never goes as far as sounding like a Post-Black Metal band, but they do have a cleaner/slower edge in their sound that few others have.

Sorgeldom in not by any means a revolutionary band, but they do a pretty solid job in incorporating different elements into a strong Black Metal foundation. The band has somewhat shifted from their original sound and now they are trying to find a middle ground between the harshness of traditional Black Metal and their experimental elements.

The rawness behind the band’s first album “Innerlig Förmörkelse” is thinned out into a more melodic Black Metal, but still strong enough to please fans of furious Black Metal bands. The band now shifts its attention to their mixture of elements in shorter songs than in their debut album and it somewhat eliminates the un-needed repetitiveness that their first album had.

The guitar riffing is pretty solid and the changes between full-on aggression and ‘clean’ passages is very effective, evoking old-school Borknagar and even some Ved Buens Ende. The changes between harsh and clean vocals is done very nicely (like on the “Inner Receivings” song), and eliminates some of the dullness that is infused by the monotonous rasphy harsh vocals.

The band also features a cover of Slowdive’s “Summer Day” and it truly shows the shoegaze/post-rock beast hidden behind the band, we greatly enjoyed this song and the way it breaks the album in two giving the listener a nice breather. Overall, all songs are very well crafted and while they still suffer from some repetitiveness, they show that the band is growing musically.

Are you in the market for Black Metal with a little ‘extra’? if you are then you will greatly enjoy this fine release by a upcoming band. This release is distributed in the USA by Relapse, so be sure to pick up your copy from them.

Release: May 3rd, 2010

Country: Sweden