Tyranny Returns

This is the earliest Sargeist material available to most of us, and it should come as no surprise that it shows the band in their most primitive, primordial state, still working through the growing pains of finding their own identity. 'Tyranny Returns' shows the raw, unformed origin of Sargeist, playing a style of black metal that's a clear predecessor to what they've mastered now but also much closer to traditional Scandinavian black metal than what you might think. It's definitely interesting material, and while it's definitely not an essential piece of the Sargeist discography, it's certainly worth a look from any fan of the band or black metal historian among us.

Sargeist's music is based off walking a tightrope between the raw and the melodic: primitive, Bathory-like, raw, dissonant black metal chord structures are forced to interact with more modern, sleek, nuanced melodic forms in a duel for dominance in the music. 'Tyranny Returns' shows this tendency in a much more primitive state, with the more overtly raw tracks set apart from the more melodic ones. The first half of this demo is definitely the raw one, and you can see the clear inspiration from 'Under a Funeral Moon' all over songs like 'Dark Fortress', with their churning, sped-up Celtic Frost riffs and harsh, almost shouted vocals. These songs have a certain rock and roll feel, but with a malignancy and ichor to them that defines all of Sargeist's work. The melodic tracks pick up mostly on the second half of the demo- the sinuous, murky tremolo riffing with its occult yet depressive melodic sense is definitely a precursor to the more refined material found on albums like 'Satanic Black Devotion'.

Sargeist has always had an interesting atmosphere to me, and it's rather hard to describe- imagine if Mütiilation's predilections for drugs, suicide, and Satan were celebrated instead of mourned and you have a good idea. Sargeist's music is always vaguely disgusting and filthy yet resolutely proud of its own decay- hedonistic and excessive, like Caligula-era Rome. Well if you want filth-caked black metal, it's hard to find a better example in the Sargeist catalog than this demo. Sargeist has never sounded so sleazy as on tracks like 'Anti-Human Black Metal Wrath', where the strains of 'Deathcrush'-era Mayhem come home to roost in a short, violently rhythmic track. The production only aids the oily, viscous feeling of these songs, with the murky guitars and drums moving like a sea of raw sewage under the perpetually hissing and howling vocals. It's definitely a good example of rawness used to aid music rather than detract from it.

All this being said, while this is definitely fun, engaging music, the songwriting and riffcraft in particular simply isn't as refined as Sargeist would later get. While the tracks are solid, they tend to be a little too simple for their own good, lacking the narrative presence and gradually developing sense of disease that Sargeist is so good at creating. If you have to reduce your buying to the bare essentials, the full-lengths are definitely where Sargeist shines. However, if you're willing to get a little outside your comfort zone, there's nothing wrong at all with this material. If you want your black metal sick, disgusting, and surprisingly subtle, 'Tyranny Returns' still shines so many years later.