Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Sarcasm
Label: On Parole Productions
Release: year_month
Runtime: 51:00
Rating: 5/5
The year was 1987. The world’s population hit 5 billion, the Brits copped Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher for a third term in a row, construction of the Channel Tunnel kicked off, Prozac hit American pharmacy shelves for the first time, the first episode of The Simpsons aired, and for the first time since 1604 a supernova explosion was visible to the naked eye. Meanwhile, on a slightly more local level, a big bang of its own went off that same year in Škofja Loka/Kranj.
A big musical bang that brought thrash to Slovenia, if not to the whole of the late Yugoslavia! That was the year the legendary Slovenian thrash beast Sarcasm roared for the first time, and just two years after its birth it had already spawned a demonic brat, the cult album Crematory. Now it’s seeing the light of day for the fifth time, which easily makes it the most reissued album on home turf. Here’s how that went: in 1987 Crematory came out on cassette, today a true collector’s rarity; in 2002 the On Parole label bundled it with the »come-back« record Igra narave; in 2007 it came out on vinyl thanks to the cult label Nuclear War Now!; and three years ago the Heliaetum label put it out in a DVD box, for the first time with the lost demo Divja kri added. A telling fact that confirms the album’s importance is that the band even talked (sadly, without success) with the legendary German label Noise about releasing it. And that was at the peak of Noise’s power, when its roster included bands like Coroner, Voivod, Running Wild, Kreator, Helloween, Celtic Frost and many others!
This anthology edition, once again put together by On Parole (which is also one of the biggest »culprits« behind the band’s rebirth and rise), brings the ultimate package for every thrash metal fan who simply has to have this album in their collection. When Crematory came out, it caught thrash metal’s timeline right in its golden years, and our own Sarcasm definitely belong among the bands of that era. Despite the relative closedness and isolation of Yugoslavia at the time, they brought into the Slovenian music scene a genre that had been a complete unknown on our soil. So not only can Crematory be compared without blushing to foreign releases of the same genre from that time, it also broke new ground and inspired the bands that came after Sarcasm.
The music on this release needs no special introduction, since every line and every verse of the Sarcasm debut is woven into the beat of the Slovenian metal scene. Road Warrior, Crematory, Thrash Tonight and The Krüger Story have become iron-clad classics of our thrash metal over the years. They don’t just flow through the band’s veins, and even more so wild blood runs through the veins of the fans who roar along down in front of the stage, again and again, whenever Sarcasm step up to their incinerator. If Crematory sounded wild, unbridled, modern and brutal back then, and probably shocking too, the album still radiates razor-sharp youthful energy, explosiveness and freshness today. It has aged like fine wine, mostly thanks to the excellent instrumental and vocal performance and Blaznik’s melodic riff/solo masterpieces.
But the real value of this release lies in the bonus material, which gives us our first look at demo recordings of three songs – The Krüger Story, Fate and Runaway – and with that a glimpse into the band’s early development. If on Crematory Sarcasm sounded close to Bay Area thrash with their melodicism and singing vocals, the demos prove that the beast was even rawer, more brutal, aggressive and primitive at birth. The raw, snarling vocals and frequent »oompa-oompa« drumming show that the young Sarcasm’s big inspiration was early Teutonic thrash metal. On top of the three demos, we get Eclipse and Don’t Care If They Know to close things out, two of the songs Sarcasm recorded for a second album that never came out. They’re living, loud proof that the band progressed fast: the arrangements are more varied than before, the structures more thought-out and the band technically much more polished. And on top of all that, the booklet holds a hefty liner essay and plenty of never-before-seen photos (e.g. Blaznik in action in 1988 in a Celtic Frost shirt!)
Crematory is living music history that, despite being almost a quarter century old, is still devilishly relevant today, fresh, charged with energy and roaring like the beast on that unforgettable cover. With Crematory, Sarcasm laid down a foundation that, on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, perhaps only Bosnia’s Bombarder and Serbia’s Heller and Bloodbath came anywhere close to, and even then only from afar. And that’s exactly why Crematory should go on a pilgrimage to every Slovenian village!
Line-up
Osim Čehić – vocals
Aleš Blaznik – guitar
Sandi Dolinar – bass
Matjaž Kacin – drums
Matjaž Hudobivnik-Hudoba – guitar
Production
Borut Činč
Tracklist
1. Road Warrior
2. Crematory
3. Sarcastic Reborn
4. Thrash Tonight
5. Love At First Sight
6. The Kruger Story
7. Fate
8. Runaway
bonus:
9. The Kruger Story (demo)
10. Fate (demo)
11. Runaway (demo)
12. Eclipse
13. Don’t Care If They Now
