Sacramentia – IX
Sacramentia – IX
Self-Released
Release Date: 14/04/2022
Running Time: 39:53
Review by Victor Augusto
8.5/10
How many friends do we discover on this musical journey of being an album reviewer? Yes, it is very weird how I start my reviews, but it is important to highlight how happy I am when I discover good bands, where I can become friends with the members, after being connected with them through music. And today’s subject are some of them – Sacramentia – young guys from the Brazilian Heavy Metal scene, bringing with them another release. Considering they have been on road since 2019 and haven’t had much time, it is honorable how they have been able to record their second release so fast, after the great repercussions of their debut album.
If you could read my review of their previous album, I’d probably tell you how these guys work hard to promote their music and how hard it was to record. They are from a small city, without good studios, and they managed some sort of magic using the equipment they had available for it. The result was reasonable production that offered a kind of rawness that fits well on their sound. Sometimes having a raw production brings this atmosphere, and the band managed to balance something that was organic, but still sounded good enough to be released.
The biggest change for “IX” was the concept although, there is still a relation to the dementia of those who are part of the sacred*. Here, they went deep into the “9 circles of hell” from the book Divine Comedy (Dante Alighieri). Each song is one of these circles, that are connected sometimes amongst themselves. Basically, we have Dante and Virgil facing all the darkness. Of course, it easily could be connected to the sins we know from the bible, and if you go deep into the book, you can find this relation.
The clean and calm notes suddenly fade out to begin the first part of this saga, on the opening track ‘Between the Knowledge and the Valley of the Forgotten’ and it brings feelings of despair and confusion about what Dante is seeing or living in this first stage.
The band shows good versatility and creativity with many rhythmical changes, like in ‘Condemnation’, where the brutal Death Metal sounds insane with the addition of a good solo.
Musically, they created an atmosphere like a soundtrack for each episode (or circle). Most of them are brutal and fast songs, but sometimes we have a more depressing and desperate vibe, as you can hear on ‘Whispers of Repentance’, like is representing someone stuck in the darkness. Listening to this album, I had the sensation of listening to the Austrians of Belpheghor, but more Death Metal oriented, also with a different concept, because we have the specific theme from Dante.
I don’t have great knowledge about the book and the history, but listening to ‘Sink’ I felt that this is what makes difference in this saga: to be able to leave hell, is how you can change the wrongs you made before. In this song, Dante is fleeing on a river of blood, full of sinners who are suffering there because of their wrath in life. When you read the lyric for this song, there is a part written “Drowned by their feelings” that made understand that these sinners keep sinking on their own wrath. It is interesting how we can see an analogy of our real life in many songs.
Although many great bands have already recorded albums inspired by Divine Comedy, like Sepultura and Scars here in Brazil, Sacramentia went deep in just one part of the book (Hell), and they were able to be free to explore it. The lyrics and the great vocal interpretations are all from Renan Bezan. The team of guitarists André Guimarães and Guilherme Mendes offered a wall of heaviness, but with good melodies. To keep the energy high all along the record, Leo Michelazzo plays at a good and fast pace on drums, almost on every track, and last but not least, Guilherme Melo’s bass, which always increases the doomy spirit of their musicality.
I am glad to see bands working hard to offer a good album. We all know how hard it is in some situations, but all the passion to keep doing it is something that I do admire in Sacramentia works. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I am enjoying it.
See you in Purgatory, because it is not the end*.
*The name Sacramentia comes from the combination of the words “SACRA” (from Sacred) and “DEMENTIA” which reflects religion when people blinded by faith become sick by it.
* The lyrics of the last song ‘In Absentia’ finish with the words “This is not the end”, which represents Dante going to Purgatory after leaving Hell. Maybe it also means that the band could record the next album talking about it.
‘In Absentia’ Official Video
TRACKLISTING:
01. Between the Knowledge and the Valley of the Forgotten
02. Condemnation
03. Halls of Cerberus
04. Convicted by Gold
05. Sink
06. Beyond the Eyes of the Herectics
07. Whispers of Repentance
08. The Laws of Malebolgia
09. In Absentia
LINE-UP:
Renan Bezan – Vocals
André Guimarães – Guitar
Guilherme Mendes – Guitar
Guilherme Melo – Bass
Leo Michelazzo – Drums
LINKS:
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