Having put in various instrumental shifts with Old Man’s Child, Khold and Tulus, Thomas ‘Sarke’ Berglie is a man who has been quietly plying his trade at the heart of the Norwegian black metal scene for close to two decades without having ever really achieving the celebrated ‘black metal celebrity’ status of many of his peers. Mr Berglie has obviously decided that the time for a bit of individual recognition was due and decided to focus his undeniable musical talents on this self-titled solo project. Clearly a well-connected man, he has drafted in Ted Skjellum (a.k.a. one Nocturno Culto) to supply vocals as well as persuading Indie to release his recordings. ‘Vorunah’ was unleashed in 2009 and hot on its heels, we have Oldharian – the moment perhaps where Sarke truly cements his position as a worthy artist in his own right?
Not quite I’m afraid. As Sarke steps into the limelight for scrutiny, it is impossible to judge without scrutinising the album in context to the seminal acts to which the man has contributed to in the past. It with something of heavy heart that I have to report that Sarke doesn’t quite live up to expectations. Now this sounds and feels churlish as there is nothing intrinsically wrong with Oldharian but crucially, neither is there anything particularly stand-out either. This is a competent outburst of Nordic extreme metal, confidently delivered with one eye on the past and one eye on the future. Predominantly rooted in mid-tempo blackthrash, Sarke is happy to throw a cornucopia of ideas into the Celtic Frost indebted mix - the occasional keyboard swirl on ‘Paradigm Lost’, a sinister crawl on ‘Passage to Oldharian’ and a melee of galloping vigorousness with ‘Captured’. It’s definitely diverse, however it is this diversity that is Sarke’s greatest weakness – put simply, Oldharian lacks coherence. It’s not ugly and vicious enough to be true blackthrash, not epic enough to convince devotees of the Enslaved-Satyricon-Emperor axis and ultimately falls between a number of stools.
Berglie knows what he is doing, that is for sure – the breakdown riff in ‘Pilgrim of the Occult’ is truly infectious – and more moments of this quality could lead to something very special but generally, Oldharian does feel a little like someone treading water. It isn’t helped by the decidedly one-dimensional vocals of Nocturnal Culto. Legend though he may be, his relentless ‘Tom G Warrior meets Lemmy’ barking starts to grate after a while, following the same patterns on a number of tracks and actually coming across detrimentally on some of the more atmospheric pieces. Oldharian is OK, Sarke is talented but there’s still work to be done I feel.
http://www.myspace.com/sarkeofficial
