Style: avant-garde jazz, avant-garde metal, technical death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Imperial Triumphant, Artificial Brain, Thank You Scientist, John Coltrane, Weather Report
Review by: Andy
Country: United States-NY
Release date: 19 April 2023 & 16 June 2023
Earlier this year while I was deep down in the catacombs of my university’s music library researching free jazz for a paper about Imperial Triumphant, Sarmat released Dubious Disk with none other than Steve Blanco of the aforementioned Imperial Triumphant on bass and piano. What’s more is that Sarmat even further break the same boundaries between metal and free jazz that Imperial Triumphant do: Dubious Disk truly came out at a perfect time for me. Unfortunately, the seventeen minute live jam clocks in under our twenty-minute review threshold, so I had to pass up the review, but since I’ve picked up the band’s full-length debut, Determined to Strike, I decided to throw in a cheeky little Dubious Disk writeup as well.
Revolving around a theme from Determined to Strike’s closer, “Disturbing Advances,” Dubious Disk is the closest I’ve heard metal get to true free jazz expression. Don’t be fooled by the metal timbres: Sarmat deals in jazz technique and composition pretty much exclusively on the disk. The smooth, full sound of the trumpet and flugelhorn often take centerstage atop a dizzying array of jazzy blast beats and impressive guitars/bass, and the Thank You Scientist-like melodicism of the trumpet quite interestingly interacts with the more swirling, Imperial Triumphant-esque dissonance of the metal instruments. All six instrumentalists on Dubious Disk wield absurd talent, and the live improvisational ability really allows them to work as a fragmented unit. At once groovy and technical, Sarmat even let vocalist Andrew Gonzalez in on the action in the later stages of the track, belching out eldritch gurgles similar to Will Smith (the Artificial Brain one, not the baseball player(s) or actor). Dubious Disk isn’t a perfect jazz/metal hybrid, though; while Sarmat’s improv on Dubious Disk is its biggest blessing, differentiating it in both talent and style from most metal out there, the composition often loses itself with too-sudden transitions. However, with how crystal clear the EP is–it was recorded in Colin Marston’s studio after all–the performances pop, allowing the listener to hear every instrument perfectly. And since I can follow along so nicely, the impressive display of virtuosity easily supersedes the infrequent improv missteps, relegating Dubious Disk as an awesome proof of concept for a future full length. Dubious Disk certainly had me all hot and heavy for a jazz-filled debut…
Queue Determined to Strike only a couple months later. Much to my chagrin, the balance is much more heavily tipped toward metal this time around. The jazz influence is still there, but Determined to Strike is a weirdo’s technical death metal album through and through–which normally would be cause for celebration and not complaining, but Dubious Disk was so different than basically anything else. Many facets of the two releases are identical: insanely inhuman instrumental performances, the filthy gutturals of Gonzalez chief among those, and the overt jazziness.
Sarmat sure want you to know how talented they are. Immediately, a sci-fi sounding guitar is somehow matched by hectic drums and Blanco’s plodding bass. “Formed from Filth” is coldly calculated chaos. Moreover, those brutal death metal vocals hardly help me find my grounding–a placid little jazz fusion section materializes to further confuse my sense of direction. The crazy antics on display in the first track alone are a bit mind-boggling and certainly disorienting. “Landform” continues the crazy blending of jazz and metal with Blanco’s noir piano parts, but the guitars ring out in a frankly annoying din for a good while afterwards, not really allowing Sarmat to capitalize on the intro’s momentum. However, as Sarmat never stay in one place for long, they quickly make their way back to a more agreeable cacophony in which Gonzalez’s vocals turn from gutturals into a fierce howl atop a precarious guitar solo. The remaining four tracks drunkenly waltz their way through a variety of influences–from the disgustingly hectic strings in “Determined to Strike (Dead Hand Cycle Part 1)” that sound like the ungodly Behold… the Arctopus to the extended techniques employed by the brass on “Enervated,” the track sounding like a mix between Coltrane’s Interstellar Space and a dissonant The Beast of Nod.
Uncharacteristically, Colin Marston’s mastering work is particularly noisy and lacks the organic nature of Dubious Disk’s production. I understand that Determined to Strike is predominantly a metal album , but an airier jazz production quality would have sounded better. Accordingly, I think Sarmat picked the wrong side of the fence to fall over as jazzy tech death (maybe not to this extent, but the point still stands) is a-dime-a-dozen, while metal-y free jazz is much rarer indeed. But then again I’ll always take more things that sound so dramatically influenced by Imperial Triumphant.
For all you other Sarmat fans out there, this is the first album of a planned conceptual trilogy! Even if Determined to Strike is slightly weaker in concept than Dubious Disk, these peddlers of absolutely noisy, chaotic, and jazzy technical death metal surely have it in them to write two more fantastic albums to finish out the trilogy. Always obfuscating my expectations, Sarmat’s debut releases are brilliant despite their often overly deranged antics. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the sequels, but in the meantime I’ll gladly continue to figure out what the hell is going on in Determined to Strike for several months I imagine.
Recommended tracks: Dubious Disk, Formed from Filth, Arsenal of Tyranny, Enervated
You may also like: A.M.E.N., Dischordia, Behold… The Arctopus, The Beast of Nod, Direwolf
Final verdict: 8/10 for Dubious Disk, 7.5/10 for Determined to Strike
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook
Label: I, Voidhanger – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Sarmat is:
– SARMAT is:
James Jones – Drums
Cotter Champlain – Guitar
Andrew Gonzalez – Vocals
Oleg Zalman – Guitar
Rajan Davis – Bass
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