SARATAN – Martya Xwar.

From start to finish Saratan deliver a masterpiece of Death/Thrash Metal.

 

The band formed in their native Poland back in 2003 and have since been honing their craft and developing into what we see today. ‘Martya Xwar’ represents Saratan’s third full length release and is without doubt their strongest yet.

 
Encased in this album we have an excellent and very clever mix of styles, from Death to Thrash interspersed with some great ethnic and Oriental passages that lift the whole album to a higher plateau than many others in a similar genre. Opening track ‘Taj-e Sahra’, an instrumental, really builds the atmosphere for the oncoming onslaught beautifully well before we are plunged headlong into the auditory inferno of ‘Masterna’ and ‘Verminous Disease’, both triumphant slabs of Metal of a really high caliber. A wonderful Oriental intro to the video accompanied track ‘Ba al Zevuv’ demonstrates the variety of musical influences within the band, enabling them to produce more tempo twists and turns than many. My personal album favourite though would have to be ’Silent Sound Of Mourning’, a more dark and malevolent piece of music you could not wish for. Scathing vocals delivering a message of despair and grief before a simply superb piano segment that grabs the soul and pulls at every sinew of emotion within your body, making for over seven minutes of the finest music I’ve heard for a long time.

 
The album as a whole portrays an apocalyptic and doom filled picture, whilst still able to offer an element of hope and progression , delivered with a really impressive and varied level of musicianship. Though to some, the product may be too extreme in it’s content, it demands to be listened to, tracks such as ’God That Disappears’ and album closer ’Asmodea’ are certainly no run of the mill Death Metal album fillers, the latter conjuring a vision of ancient times and warring hordes and again featuring some really meaningful examples of how good Metal and ethnic instrumentation can sound when combined in this way.

To sum it all up, I would highly recommend the album to anyone who cares to give it a go, if you do, I would be highly surprised if you didn’t walk away thinking you’d just listened to something fresh, different and ultimately downright good.

Rating 9/10.

 

Track Listing;

1. Taj-e Sahra.
2. Masterna.
3. Verminous Disease.
4. Ba al Zevuv.
5. Silent Sound Of Mourning.
6. The Sacred Path Of Martya Xwar.
7. God That Disappears.
8. Asmodea.

Saratan are;

Jarek Niemiec – Bass Guitar and Vocals.
Adam Augustynski – Guitar.
Michal Stefanski – Drums.

‘Martya Xwar’ is out now via Massacre Records.

http://www.massacre-records.com

http://www.facebook.com/SaratanBand?ref=ts&fref=ts

 

 

 

 

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyit87xv8Zg&w=560&h=315]