After the lecture of GRAVDAL’s stylistic description announcing uncompromising and right-in-the-face Black Metal, I am really surprised by the sound on Sadist.
After an overlong Intro, quite sluggish rhythms are dominating the track Tomhet; the voice turns out to be harsh, but not extremely brutal. Afterwards the speed is augmented a little, but the German entitled Angst does not miss out catchiness and offers Black Metal far away from chaos and permanent high speed attacks. Unfortunately the song ends much too early after short three minutes - but the created atmosphere would have deserved a few minutes more of time to unfold. The title song Sadist is structured by dry as a bone rocking chords, while singer Galge spits out his lyrics about weak human beings.
Every now and then a dirty attitude comes along, moderate rhythms and partly spherical passages control the sound and get contrasted by fast parts. This work by Norwegian artists is quite easy to comprehend, whereby I credit the compositions to be stylish and catchy but also sick as well as oppressive.
Sadist should please everyone who likes short songs, preferring not all too complex structures. In addition the sound will attract to these listeners who do not need fast as an arrow speed continuously. Concluding, I can attest to GRAVDAL that they created a solid, divertive album with addiction to morbid sounds. Some ideas could have been elaborated a little bit better and longer. As a consequence an ambivalent and not totally convincing impression lasts in the end.