Universe of Filth

I never heard of Sauron, let alone any good black metal bands coming out of Holland before. Not that I didn’t believe that any such metal bands existed at all in a nation that prides itself on wind power, baked goods and pastries and, of course, clogs. I just didn’t know, until I heard “Sauon.Death.Squad.” From that point forward, I just had to hear more of these violent musical brigadiers.

The band’s debut full-length, ‘Universe of Filth,’ is a perfect example of how black metal should sound as “the sensory equivalent of war,” a quote mentioned by sociologist Jeffery Arnett. This album reeks of violence, death, war, bloodshed, agony, anger and pure unrestrained hatred. I could practically smell hydraulic oil and vision tanks with armies of corpse painted infantry men racing towards me ready to sever my head right off my shoulders.

Clocking in at just slightly over 30 minutes, this is a band that takes old-school, raw, primitive black metal to its most visceral maximum. Absolutely, positively no keyboards, “atmospherics,” or even silent breaks of gentler slow-paced tempos. Their opening track – my personal favorite – “Sauron Death Squad,” signals in the theme of the whole album – ‘WAR’! What a grand beginning! The tracks that follow don’t let up for so much of a millisecond. Each song relatively short, fast, brutal and raw with Eclipse’s raw, piercing vocals matching the aesthetic of the band. With their longest song being just about four and-a-half minutes in length, the band obviously prefers avoiding epic song lengths in favor of something more brutal and unrelenting – almost with a very slight punk-like sway in the guitar riffs, which is exactly the feel this album gives.

The production of the album is quite good, not too clean, but perfectly audible with every instrument mixed in a delicate balance to each represent the feeling of different weapons serving a function of destruction on the battlefield. The drums carry perfectly like a non-stop Schmeisser gun, with the cymbals crashing like firebombs around your whole stereo. The guitars almost never stop playing in tremolo, which speaks much credit, not just for the band's compositions, but also their physical endurance for such an album. I’ll be damned if not one single member of this band DOESN’T acquire tendinitis or carpel tunnel syndrome in the near future. Even the couple small sound bytes and spoken phrases seem to help feed the fires of hatred and disgust for this entire album.

Overall, if you like all killer - no filler, unrestrained, no-frills, raw black/war metal and if you share a strong disgust in the failure of humanity as a disease, I strongly recommend Sauron’s ‘Universe of Filth.’ Grab your helmet, bullet belt and machine gun, because the Sauron Death Squad is ready to attack.