Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Black Metal
Label: Moribund Records

Finally, after news of it’s release came out back in August, Sargeist’s new album Let the Devil In is here for us reviewers and probably thieves. It’s coming on November 9 for those who buy their music legally.
Being talked about as a true form of Finnish Black Metal, in a world where the “bloated corpse of black metal is being picked apart by MySpace ‘friends’ and post-whatever posers”, Sargeist continues their attack on Christianity with classic zeal.
Shatraug’s guitar work is still as raw as hell while keeping the melodic tendencies of old school black metal. Hoath Torog’s voice just shatters all expectations by outperforming about 95% of black metal’s vocalists, becoming even better than he has on all previous Sargeist and Behexen albums. Horns, meanwhile, kicks the shit out of his drums, laying down amazing blasts, brilliant fills, and for slower songs like “Nocturnal Revelation” bringing it all down and just keeping the groove solid, all with a drum tone that is unearthly and gorgeous and still ominous.
Let the Devil In is an awesome and inspiring album of true black metal, a milestone in the genre. This will probably define what comes from Scandinavian black metal for a long time now.
Or at least until Sargeist delivers another album.
10 out of 10.

Today, Moribund Records confirms November 9th, 2010 as the release date for Sargeist‘s long-awaited new album, Let the Devil In. Dedicated Moribund terrorists right from the start, Sargeist’s last full-length album was 2005′s critically acclaimed Disciple of the Heinous Path, preceded by their classic Satanic Black Devotion debut in 2003. Featuring vocalist Torog and drummer Horns of cult Finnish horde Behexen as well as the six-string sorcery of Horna mastermind Shatraug, here on their third album Sargeist display that black metalled orthodoxy need not spell creative death, that occult mysticism is still ripe for exploration if the words match the deeds – and especially if you have the songs to back them up. One anthem to the horned one after another, Let the Devil In masterfully balances raw, bloodcurdling passion with poised, steely-eyed professionalism: a new classic of traditional black metal is born!

Says Shatraug regarding the imminent release of Let the Devil In, “The forthcoming Sargeist album took us more than five years to make. After two albums, the standard we had raised was needed to be met with a liturgy surpassing the previous works, and for that reason alone, it took such a long time to complete the new work. Finally, when everything started to fall in place, it didn’t take long. Lyrically, Let the Devil In is a continuation of the heinous path we had chosen – that of black magic, necromancy, and worship of Satan. The result is definitely the strongest of Sargeist yet, taking all the assets of our past with a new Satanic illumination.”

Also watch for a split 7″ from Sargeist and Drowning The Light, out on Moribund Records, September 29.

Tracklisting:
I – Empire of Suffering
II – A Spell to Awaken the Temple
III – From the Black Coffin Lair
IV – Burning Voice of Adoration
V – Nocturnal Revelation
VI – Discovering the Enshrouded Eye
VII – Let the Devil In
VIII – Sanguine Rituals
IX – Twilight Breath of Satan
X – As Darkness Tears the World Apart