Sarcophagus is a band that has been around the US underground for about 6 or 7 years now bleeding forth black influenced death metal. It was never all too spectacular to me, but I liked their music. Now, they have unleashed what is possibly the best American CD in the past few years. I first heard this material live a few weeks before the CD was ready to be released, and the sound of Sarcophagus had changed completely. The music is now much faster, much darker and has much more of a black metal influence. Drummer Dwayne Timlin simply crushes the skins relentlessly and only softens the intensity once or twice throughout the release, and bassist Marc Koltar (who plays pick less, by the way) has some of the quickest fingers I have heard in quite a while. The vocals of Andrew Harris are what really give this music it’s edge, the vocals are high pitched and screamed, yet he still enunciates well, and doesn’t fall victim to mumbling every other word. The only possible problem I have with this record is that while some of the songs are simply astounding (try tracks 1, 2 and some of them are somewhat boring (3,5), which takes a bit away from the greatness of this record. I know Sarcophagus has a new MCD coming out on Breath of Night Records sometime soon so make sure to get ahold of them and certainly buy their music.

Written By: Leif