Band:	Sargeist
Album:	Feeding The Crawling Shadows
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	March 2014

01. Feeding The Crawling Shadows
02. In Charnel Dreams
03. Unto The Undead Temple
04. Snares Of Impurity
05. Return Of The Rats
06. The Unspoken Ones
07. The Shunned Angel
08. Inside The Demon's Maze
09. Kingdom Below
10. Funerary Descent

Oh Sargeist, where art thou?

Seriously though. Is this not the same band that released Let the Devil In? Where are all the riffs? And what happened to those catchy hooks? Don't even get me started on the production. No, this can't be the latest Sargeist album. There must be some mistake.

You're expecting the rest of the review to be negative, which is understandable given that introduction. But there's something about Feeding the Crawling Shadows that refuses to go down as a failure. It's unoriginal and formulaic and a little bit amateurish, but that's exactly how it's supposed to be. Evidently Sargeist have moved on from that "evolving" band so many grew fond of 4 years ago, opting instead to embrace the true nature of raw black metal. These aren't inexperienced musicians. They know how to write a black metal album - even if said album is somewhat of a drastic departure from what is arguably their most well-rounded release to date. There are subtle hints of melody throughout to help with that headache, but don't expect any acoustic breakdowns or clean vocal passages.

The real question is, what makes this album worth your precious time? The songs blend together with very little identity, the poor production doesn't do any single element of the sound any particular favor, and the cold-but-fuzzy atmosphere isn't enveloping enough to make up for the overall lack of ideas. But that's precisely what makes Feeding the Crawling Shadows a success. These guys take pride in their most abrasive release to date, pummeling the listener into the depths of Hell itself with relentless simplicity and brutality. I'm not calling this a masterpiece - I'm hardly even calling it "good". It's simply cut-and-dry, tried-and-true, horse-beaten-to-death-and-summoned-back-to-life-only-to-be-beaten-back-to-death-again black metal. If that isn't your thing, then take a page out of Darkthrone's book.

Behexen, Horna, Sargeist - all projects with shared members and musical ideologies. If that mindlessly raw style of black metal gets your goat, then this album won't have any reason to wind up on your playlist. However, if that mindlessly raw style of black metal is what you use to get off while sacrificing a goat (for the glory of Satan of course), then by all means give in to the shadow.