Sad - Total Nothingness
March 21 2008 at 09:21:48 AM
From Hellas issues Sad, a Black Metal duo comprised of multi-instrumentalist Ungod and vocalist Nadir. New Jersey’s Regimental Records has chosen to give this demo a CD release, sparsely packaging it in traditional white on black, adding nothing but a lyric sheet and twin portraits of the players. The song titles are conspicuously barren and unostentatious. The lyrics are sparse and austere—their conveyance practically humorous in its minimalism. The song “Dark” offers five examples of the absence of light: starless nights, when clouds conceal the moon—no light. Dungeons and forests and “astral space” are invoked; their loci free of light, free of hope. The song “Dawn” gives six states of dawn: eerie, frozen, darkened, red, black and final—their designations appearing macabre—and Homeric. Sad’s music is as basic, with layers of guitar, bass and drums rumbling behind hoarse and often maniacal groaning—a la Urfaust—which often gives way to pointless cries of pity and anguished snorts. The final track, “Nothing,” eschews electricity, vocals and percussion, giving the listener a galloping acoustic interlude. Like the Russell quotation that covers the inner sleeve, this is a music marked by the inevitability of ruin—a very un-Hellenic concept, as the Greeks seemed to always couch optimism in the “benign” potency of Fate. —Due to its simplicity, an interesting, if not fine debut.
[Stewart Voegtlin]
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