A fresh wind blows from Lørenskog near Oslo, the home of illustrious personalities such as Aksel Lund Svindal, skiing ace and the worse half of skiing beauty Julia Mancuso. Svindal’s neighbors SARKOM exist since 2002 and have released a demo and two full-lengths so far. The Scandinavian band prostitution doesn’t stop short of the Norwegians. So does Mannevold of Koldbrann as guest singer on Symbolic Revulsion and Tjalve, one of the founding members of 1349, get in on SARKOM besides other active and inactive members of Pantheon I. It is written in the stars whether SARKOM is considered as a project. That would be a pity, because a notably mature, technically high grade and powerfully produced hellfire is sparked with Bestial Supremacy which calls for being performed live. The album starts with the catchy and mighty groovy opener Inferior Bleeding. The hips don’t remain still. The rough vocals of the frontman Unsgaard come into their own. The singer contrives to present his vocal skills manifold and with a proper portion anger.
The groove-marathon continues with I Call Your Name. SARKOM remind not seldom in a convenient mid-tempo of newer Satyricon, but tread more traditional ways songwriting- and production-wise. It is as if the primitive charm of Dark Medieval Times meets the infernally precise grooves of the newer releases of Satyricon. At the latest with the title track it comes clear, that the Norwegians can floor the accelerator, too. Bugger me! That kicks ass.
The further journey through Bestial Supremacy never gets boring. The high melody content is heaved to a new level on the album highlight Infected. Beautiful guitar melodies and desperate vocals appear next to pounding drums – especially the mid section reminds once again of Satyricon songs such as Now, Diabolical.
All in all strong three-quarters of an hour of Black Metal between past and present with a highly addictive potential. Nine fat points for Bestial Supremacy.