Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Sarcasm
Label: Histria Cult Records
Release: 1989
Runtime: 35:07
Rating: 5/5
How do you put out a metal album that sounds current, unusual, let’s just say downright unique, when you’re a metal band born on the soil, and in the time, of the late, lamented Yugoslavia, way back in 1987? An album that wears the pedigree of a cult classic, that stays relevant to the era it was made in, and that stands as a real little metal bible for every generation to come that runs into it while walking their own heavy metal path? The story of Kranj’s Sarcasm…
Once upon a time there was the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and hot on its heels came an explosion of bands from the other side of the Atlantic who wanted to take the n.w.o.b.h.m. legacy and deliver it in an even more aggressive, even faster, even bolder way. Sometimes even a more complex way in the arrangements (early Fates Warning, Crimson Glory,…). We’re talking about the old school of American speed metal, which later also gave the logical seeds to Bay Area thrash metal. Metallica, Megadeth, Testament and Anthrax showed up, and almost at the same moment things blew up in Germany, which woke up with its Teutonic answer to thrash metal’s moment, and out came Destruction, Holy Moses, Kreator, Sodom, Paradox, Exumer,…
It’s incredible how you can grow and develop at the cutting edge of a trend as dictated by the world, in the middle of a former state system that kept a careful grip on information and picked out what the people got to see, or even served it up and put it in their mouths. Because Sarcasm got going in 1987! From the moment they formed, they knew what was happening in the West, on the other side of the Atlantic pond, and they knew exactly what they wanted! And as such, they immediately set off on their first stroll through the streets of Kranj, decked out in tall white Puma sneakers, skin-tight worn-out jeans pulled up into the crotch, spiked leather jackets, scowls on their faces, right in line with the metal boom of the time. Children of the branded, children of the hard-working working-class crowd, children of the future, a mirror of the society of the day, a revolt that screamed with its very appearance: »Break the chains, tear down the walls!« Just two years after forming, they released their solo studio debut »Crematory«, which today counts as a cult classic, and with which Sarcasm actually defined and founded the birth of thrash metal in Slovenia, and not only that. At the time, this immensely badass album sounded fresh, modern, inspired, unique. It embodied brutality, speed, arrogance, the untamed savagery of an understanding of world thrash metal poured through Slovenian minds and hands into a distinctive art document of its own!
In Slovenia, thrash metal was in its infancy back then. Besides Sarcasm, Koper’s Salem, Jesenice’s Game Over and Murska Sobota’s Železobeton got going around that time, and the somewhat different Epidemic Zone fired up their engine too,… All of these bands served up original material, but it’s »Crematory« that is the album that grounds the true birth of thrash metal in Slovenia and in Yugoslavia as it was then.
It’s hard to find four genius minds in one place who, just two years after the band’s launch, catch a one-of-a-kind working chemistry calibrated to a flexibly inspired vibe, in the spirit of which the authentic realization of literally every idea, however wild, becomes possible! The odds really are slim that four great talents would come together in such a small territory, and on top of that know no fear at all. Brilliantly twisted riffs, superb communication of the untamed, savage drumming, highly active bass lines clearly pushed to the front, a thoughtful and wildly intelligent placement of the transitional passages that keep the band’s apocalyptic face of crushing doom at an exceptional level, its craving to execute a bestial racket that instantly shocks every head raised on the “sweet” bands of the day like Gu-gu, Čudežna polja, Pop Design,…. Sensible, highly fluid and, as far as the production picture goes, raw, alive and boldly dirty! Everything that real thrash metal authenticity needs. A kick of cassette napalm between the eyes, anger shaken out of a pair of fully tensed balls! Aleš Blaznik is an outstanding guitarist, let’s just say musician. Not only does he bring exceptional riffs, he also shows his genius and a rarely found insight for those times in top-notch solo acrobatics. This musician’s feel for ideally blending melodic characteristics, as dictated by the state of speed metal’s development at the time, with thrash metal filth is incredible!
What finally marks this reissue of »Crematory« is, besides the eight gems that can each boast a stamp of their own charisma and a full creed of character, and so work like eight fully rounded musical stories, an extra track for the first time too: Divja kri, a lost cult classic of the band, sung in Slovenian lyrics, which sums up the musical philosophy and the life pulse of the late eighties in an especially strikingly honest way, as this genius quartet breathed it in deeply and showed it with the unbridled courage of great musical talent.
All this bravura, deeply inspired playing on the instrumental side of the crew wouldn’t have its real effect without a solid vocal delivery, though! The vocals are outstanding. Not in a technical sense. Sarcasm don’t need that, since it would make them seem too prettily dressed up. It’s as dirty as can be, honest in its sermon like few things are. Raw and cutting, it reaches an exceptional vocal range that, in its venomously frenetic lunge, crowns every single creative move of the band! The delivery of the English lyrics with a clearly audible, German-inherited accent comes across as downright endearing in its authenticity! The fact that the guys were thoroughly familiar with how the leading thrash metal bands of the Western world were arranging songs at the time is also confirmed by the thoughtful dressing of the basic vocal lines with backing vocal harmonies, with which Sarcasm masterfully contrast the atmospheric development of the songs themselves and deepen the high dynamic development of the album »Creamtory« itself.
The essence of a band called Sarcasm already makes sense at a glance at the cover itself, where a fictional zombie thrasher hero carries Freddy Krüger’s severed head in one hand, and wears Krüger’s deadly five-fingered butcher blade on the other. So Sarcasm sarcastically turned the whole Freddy Krüger story on its head, which is also confirmed by the lyrics of the song The Krüger Story, where the roles are swapped and Krüger is pushed into the role of the one who has to save his own skin!
This is an album that is a hugely important document in the development of Slovenian heavy metal and has groundbreaking historical value. It was made by humble young guys who just hungered to deliver an ominous, shockingly deadly, noisily raging, up-to-the-minute thrash metal album for 1989. With everything they had. Not knowing they were writing history for Slovenian metal. For their creative insight and unbridled courage they never got honest recognition or standing, even though they more than earned both in blood. »Crematory« is a product of special charisma that, in a different environment for those times, could have thrown the doors wide open for the band to break through onto the international scene and laid the cornerstone of a cult status that might even have been recognized worldwide. When you weigh the content of »Crematory« next to the debuts of today’s cult giants of the global stage, such as Metallica, Megadeth and/or Anthrax, it becomes instantly clear that, with its rich message and unique songwriting flexibility, »Crematory« holds its own against the content of their studio debuts with no trouble at any moment.
Line-up
Osim Čehić – vocals
Aleš Blaznik – guitar
Sandi Dolinar – bass guitar
Matjaž Kacin – drums
Production
Sarcasm
Track list
1. Road Warriors
2. Crematory
3. Sarcasm Reborn
4. Thrash Tonight
5. Love At First Sight
6. The Krüger Story
7. The Fate
8. Runaway
9. Divja kri (bonus track)
