In ten minutes, Rhode Island’s five-piece Sangus accomplishes everything I could want from an unholy-blackened crust-core EP. Whirling poisonous clouds of tremolo guitars breaking out into screeching solos? Frantic, blasting drums? A vocalist hell-bent on spewing war-chants instead of words? Yeah, all there, and all tied to the mission statement of “get in, fuckin’ destroy, get out.”
Sangus’ pounding black metal harkens back to mid-90s Norwegian ragers like Gorgoroth’s Under the Sign of Hell, but only adds enough ‘core elements to structure and direct the chaos. The first four tracks are simply killer: there’s a deep, and sometimes layered, production that leaves room for all contributions, and really lets the hints of melody show. My only complaint is the throwaway noise track tacked onto the end. When these guys go to record their full length, hopefully they’ll follow up the songs offered here, rather than droning experimentation.
(Eternal Death Records)
