Sahg - Sahg II
Regain Records - RR 115 - 18 March 2008
By Jack Deming
Here we have
Sahg, a
Sabbath-esque Doom band hailing from Norway of all places, presenting their second release entitled
Sahg II.
Sahg's debut, you guessed it,
Sahg I was released to significant amounts of praise, and while I found it to be a solid release and definitely more interesting than the standard Doom fare of today, the lack of variation I noticed gave off the slight impression that they were happily settled into the notion that retro music is by nature exempt from real progression.
On
Sahg II however, it is completely apparent that
Sahgfeatures those of
Gorgoroth,
Manngard, and
Audrey Horne fame. This is an evolved piece of music from an evolved band. It's fantastic to witness a band growing exponentially from their previous release rather than the opposite, or worse still, diligently maintaining a monotonous trail of mediocrity (
Korpiklaani come to mind among others).
Sahg II rocks from start to finish, in more ways, tempos, and moods than one.
'From Conscious Sleep' is, forgive me, a glorious instrumental laden with choirs, cymbal crashes, looming tritones, and a haunting feeling all around. The loping, pendulistic jaunt
'Star-Crossed' sways underneath Olav Iversen's vocals and weaves amid Thomas Tofthagen's hanging trills, only to switch to a jazz tinged shuffle and return to an epic climax.
'Pyromancer' is perhaps the most straight ahead of all in terms of structure, and in its simplicity it has power and catchiness that make it one of the most memorable tracks of
II.
It comes as a relief that
Sahg are neither content to sit back and 'stick to their guns', nor are they incapable of or resistant to significant musical growth. I wish more bands could be so bold.
Official Sahg Website
Official Sahg Myspace
Official Regain Records Website
