Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Sarcasm
Released: 2011
Runtime: 45:00
Rating: 5/5
Sarcasm, the old guard of Slovenian thrash metal, got going way back in 1987 and just two years later put out their debut Crematory, a cult classic today. After countless gigs played all over the former homeland, military service, school and other obligations forced them to call it quits. But the Sarcasm name was never forgotten, and the call of the stage didn’t leave the members in peace either, so in 1999 Sarcasm got back together and in 2001 released the album Igra narave, with the debut reissued alongside it. Since then Crematory has come out twice more, including (on vinyl) via California’s Nuclear War Now. A good number of members have rotated through the band since the reboot, but the core stayed the same: founder Aleš Blaznik and vocalist Egist Zagoričnik, who, naturally, left their mark on the records Divja kri (2003) and Revolt (2005) too. Those two albums did have that proper Sarcasm dry bite, but you could hear the band was searching for itself quite a bit on them. After a longer lull, Klemen Renko (guitar; a member of the band’s second incarnation) came back into the fold, and drummer Aleš “Dime” Korošec brought some young blood to the lineup.
So the question was what Sarcasm would serve up on their new, fifth studio album Something to Believe In, but any fear that the album would be just average gets nipped in the bud the moment the deep breathing in the intro signals that this Slovenian old school thrash beast is alive and breathing with full lungs. The first thing you notice is a production that’s exceptionally fitting for Sarcasm and this record, because it has real “punch”, the kind that hits you with the big, colorful, glittering lettering of the fight scenes in the Batman series (“BAM! KAPOW!”); it’s like a raw punch to the nose that leaves your vision blurry with tears and has you staggering a few more steps before you face-plant into the curb. The guitar lines have a slightly dirtier, rawer sound this time, while the torpedoing drums and bass fill out the deeper, lower end nicely. The Blaznik/Renko guitar duo truly shines this time around: master Blaznik’s riffs are powerful and well thought out, and they’re placed perfectly in the songs, painting exactly the mood and atmosphere each individual track is going for. The album’s common thread is war, both literal (World War I and II, Slovenia’s war of independence) and symbolic (the “war” metalheads have to fight – Something to Believe In, the battle with your own mind – Demons). The instrumental foursome lays down a brilliant foundation for these war themes, adapting chameleon-like to the feeling each song is meant to evoke. Real thrash anthems with real drive, riffs flying in all directions like shrapnel, are the uncompromising title track Something To Believe In, Summer 91 and 21, while the slower, sadder and more melancholic side of the album is written by the two central tracks dedicated to the memory of the World War I slaughterhouse, Voices of Verdun and Ghosts in the River. That last one, maybe the album’s strongest piece, is without a doubt one of the band’s best songs, and on an emotional level it works like a metal setting of Gregorčič’s “Soči” (“To the Soča”), with Mucy’s superb take on the coldness of that emerald beauty (“River went cold ’cause of so much blood”). The song is soaked in a sense of tragic fate for the thousands who fell on the mountain peaks above the Soča, and Mucy adds to it brilliantly with a sorrowful, eerily melancholic vocal, while the goosebump-inducing guitar lines and a nicely placed flute right at the start do the rest. Just these days the last fighter of World War I died, but the memory of the darkest chapters of human history must not sink into oblivion – and through songs like Ghosts in the River, it won’t! Across the other nine tracks too, Mucy delivers an excellent vocal performance, probably his best since joining the ranks of Sarcasm. Most of the vocals sit in the mid-range and are infectiously melodic, though of course he often lets out an aggressive thrash scream. On top of that, every single track, without exception, is marked by surgically precise riffs, wonderfully flowing solos masterfully delivered by Aleš Blaznik, and above all mighty, infectious, perfectly placed choruses that practically beg you to join in. Of course, this time too there was no skipping the typical Sarcasm wit and cheekiness – in the vocals and the lyrics – which breaks up the darker “war” side of the album a bit. The standouts here are License to Sarcasm, with its worked-in James Bond theme and a playful (lye-sense to shar-casm) Sean Connery impression, We Are At War (Yo! Ho! Ho!), and the song Demons, sung with real conviction by Mucy.
Something to Believe In is without a doubt the strongest Sarcasm release since Igra narave, maybe even since the debut Crematory. It’s a powerful record, both instrumentally (the guitar work especially is top-notch!) and vocally, one that carries its excellent lyrics and strong messages over into the music even better. And it has “License to Sarcasm!”
Lineup
Aleš Blaznik – guitar, vocals
Klemen Renko – guitar, vocals
E.Z. “Easy Mucy” – vocals
Jurij Buh – bass
Aleš Korošec – drums
GUEST:
Gordana Buh – flute
Production
Žika & Tim Antonijevič
Tracklist
1. Summer 91
2. Something to Believe In
3. Demons
4. Voices of Verdun
5. Ghost on the River
6. 21
7. License to Sarcasm
8. We Are At War
9. Generations in Blood
10. Surrender
