ALBUM REVIEW: Across the Rhine is Only Death – Sammath

With a career spanning back over 25 years, SAMMATH have made a notable name for themselves with their aggressive take on black metal, their music encapsulating the war and death approached in the lyrics, with six full lengths standing as a testament to the band’s enduring popularity and musical prowess. Their latest album, Across the Rhine is Only Death is the band’s first in close to six years, and proves to be a solid statement of intent that could very well propel this band to the forefront of the European underground.

Savagery doesn’t ease the listener into this newest offering from SAMMATH, launching straight into a chaotic and monstrous sounding slab of rabid black metal with some equally feral vocals. At points it is absolutely cacophonous, with only a few brief hints at melody breaking up the unerring intensity, making for a vicious opening effort that grabs the listeners attention right out of the gate. All Lay Dead in the Slit Trenches of Calcar follows in much the same vein, with authoritative drumming providing the foundation upon which aggressive guitar hooks and grating vocal passages are built, creating a dense wall of noise with a solid death metal undercurrent that makes the song sound all the more ferocious.

Meanwhile, Battletorn opts for a far more melodic and catchy approach to the songwriting, without losing anything in the way of energy and visceral power. The guitars make for a more instantly memorable affair, diving between thick, thrashy sections and far more discordant ones, with the drums setting a demented beat underneath, making for a song that is incredibly tight and focused, proving to be one of the early stand out tracks on the album. Ferocious Mortal Fire is a far more acerbic track than those that have come before it, with machine gun precise drums, crushing guitars with an underlying groove and probably the most frenzied vocals on the record to this point. It’s a monolithic, unflinching juggernaut of a song that does an excellent job of bringing the album first half to a close.

Totenhügel makes great use of a more steady pace to build an expansive and grandiose sound, but it quickly falls back into the familiar territory of fast and furious guitar lines and drums, coupled with hellish vocals, diversifying the sound significantly, ebbing and flowing between slow crawls and bursts of brutality, making this particular song more eclectic than those that preceded it.  Blood Ridden Fields is a short, sharp shock of bestial black metal, that, despite being a mere two minutes long, leaves a distinct impression on the album, making full use of its limited running time to be the albums single most aggressive and acerbic track.

Penultimate track Bitter Fighting Amongst the Dead follows much the same template, with dense, frenetic guitars and tortured, bellicose vocals providing many of this songs highlights, and giving this album a very good climactic offering that leads into the final track extremely well. Across the Rhine is Only Death‘s closing title track is an impressive and powerful offering that showcases the energy and musical prowess of SAMMATH incredibly well. Diving between razor sharp, rhythmic hooks and jarring counterpoints, it’s a song that is as ferocious as it is dissonant, with some of this records most cacophonous and acerbic performances, especially the vocals, which seem to reach a new demented peak on here. The guitars shift between the aforementioned chaotic moments and far more epic ones as the song progresses, which ultimately keeps the song interesting right up to the very end, bringing this album to a close on a very high note.

This is a great record that shows SAMMATH at their creative zenith. If there is one criticism to be drawn from this record, Across the Rhine is Only Death seems to stick to a single formula, rarely eschewing their speed driven, brutal aural assault from the first note to the last. If you like fast and ferocious music, this won’t be a problem, and to be fair, the formula works. The musicianship on offer is impressive, and the music is so tightly knit and focused that it’s very hard not to get caught up in it at points.

Rating: 8/10

Across the Rhine is Only Death is out now via Hammerheart Records.

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