Sarcoma Inc. - Torment Rides Forever

SARCOMA INC. - Torment Rides Forever (Epidemic Music Norway - CD 2002)

I think I can consider myself to be a great Limbonic Art fan; and I am one ever since the year they’ve released their essential and absolutely phenomenal debut LP “Moon in the Scorpio” – and that was sooo many years ago already. Time flies and through this time Limbonic Art had its ups and downs – but mainly ups. At some point they’ve split up for a while and at that time both Limbonic members went into divergent directions, creating two very different musical projects, what only confirmed how different were their musical tastes (what also had a reflection on the Limbonic Art albums of that time, especially on “Ad Noctum - Dynasty of Death”). Morfeus has formed Dimension F3H; band filled with electronics, melodies, clean vocals and basically quite easily listenable, a bit avant-garde, music, described maybe as a more melodic version of Arcturus. Meanwhile Deamon (joined by an individual named Arghamon) went in a completely different direction, forming Sarcoma Inc. – the intention of this band was to play something utterly aggressive, fast and old school, what would combine the elements of thrash and black metal into one furious and relentless form. Through the years Sarcoma Inc. released three albums, but I only know one of them; the first one “Torment Rides Forever” from 2002 released by the band under their own label called Epidemic Music Norway.

And for sure Sarcoma Inc. sounds poles apart to Dimension F3H. But it is very interesting to notice that while the original aim of Sarcoma was to combine some classic thrash and black metal influences – which they pretty much did – then from the very beginning the music of this project sounded very, very original. And to me it is almost like if Limbonic Art had two children: Dimension F3H was that nice and well behaving kid, while Sarcoma Inc. was an unwanted bastard child, which is rude and problematic and which is not possible to compromise. I mention Limbonic Art again, because for me the music of Sarcoma Inc. has a lot of similarities to this band. I mean, if you take all the keyboards away, as well as all those epic passages and clean vocals from their music, but keep only the fast, uncompromising black metal from such LPs as “Ad Noctum - Dynasty of Death” and “The Ultimate Death Worship”, and then if you add the old school flavour and rawness, then the final effect will be what you can find on “Torment Rides Forever”.

You can notice the involvement of Deamon in Sarcoma Inc. straight away, as his vocals have always been so unique and characteristic… This guy has a killer voice; he screams, howls; he’s furious, but also sometimes quite majestic… If I mentioned that the music of Sarcoma Inc. sounds quite original, then his voice is one of those things, which makes it to be unique. Maybe sometimes, like in “Dreams of Vengeance”, he interestingly reminds me Mille Petroza, but that is just a small impression, as mostly he operates with his ghastly, furious scream. But all in all his voice gives the music a new dimension. You shouldn’t be expecting a traditional, old styled thrash metal riffing from this album; it certainly doesn’t sound at all like Aura Noir or Nocturnal Breed. As I already said, the music inclines towards Limbonic Art’s more furious and relentless, ultra fast or mid paced playing, but somehow the whole music has also this old school vibe, what results in something truly original and awesome. Interestingly even the production is quite close to Limbonic Art’s two albums I mentioned above – if you only deprive them of all symphonic sounds and add a real drumming… Just listen to the guitar tone, for that sake, and such songs as “Paranoid Schizophrenia”, “Dreams of Vengreance” (heavily influenced by KREATOR!!!), “Psychopathic Dominator” and especially the killer “Well of Damnation” and “Necrowhore”, which are two my favourite songs of the album (check out the lyrics for “Necrowhore” especially… hmm, so tasty hehe!) – I just worship this music and its cold, inhuman atmosphere, filled with ferocity and madness. And they really do have many similarities to Limbonic Art, at the same time such “Carnivorous Aggressor” and “Dreams of Vengeance” may be the most old styled and most thrashing songs of all from the album.

I must admit that on the first listen I was slightly sceptical towards “Torment Rides Forever”, but the album grew on me very quickly and soon just shredded to pieces. And now I just love it, it is damn awesome. This week, when I decided to do this review, I’ve listened to it about 20 times and I would still do some more spins, if there wasn’t that huge queue of more metal recordings next to it. Anyway, I honestly and strongly advise you to get Sarcoma Inc, and personally I’ll start chasing the other two albums of the band, as I just need to have them in my collection! Oh, and check out those lyrics, filled with violence, sadism, sex, torture, torments and unholy lust!

Standout tracks: “Necrowhore”, “Paranoid Schizophrenia”, “Psychopathic Dominator”, “Well of Damnation”

Final rate: 90/100