Saturday, October 25, 2025

Sacram - Far Away (2007)

 
Cost: $1.00

The disc starts out rather mellowly with jangly guitars and ethnic-influenced melodies which I can't decide are more Mediterranean or Middle Eastern sounding. This has me prepped for much more progressive-sounding music, but then the rest of the short track was very straightforward melodic death metal with black metal sounding vocals. The beginning of the title track opens in much the same way (I was leaning a bit more towards it being more Mediterranean in sound), but later in the song there are several sections of clearly Middle Eastern melodies that are very reminiscent of Orphaned Land. The third track is more melodic DM, but they do throw in more of the Middle Eastern stuff towards the end.

The closing track takes on a slower tempo. There are melancholy, doomy-but-not-pure doom elements that remind me a lot of Scandinavian bands, but I also detect a bit of the atmospheric Greek touch--not any overly strong Hellenic influence, but it shares a bit of the undercurrent running through disparate bands like Horrified, Nightfall, Septic Flesh, and Rotting Christ's gothic era. That said, especially considering the type of melodic death here as well as the Middle Eastern melodies, I definitely would not have guessed they were from Greece.

This is a case where I actually wish they had explored the slower and more atmospheric touches in their sound (even going farther into progressive territory--gasp!). It's just a short mCD though, and the melodic DM is competent enough that it doesn't wear out its welcome, and even the small touches of those other elements make it stand out positively. Can't complain for a buck.

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