There are many different forms of beauty in this world. The form that most people would think of when the word is mentioned is clean, polished and catches the eye easily whilst stunning the beholder. However, there is a form that is not clean or polished, but rather hazy and jagged whilst still catching and holding the beholder as if time itself had frozen. It’s the type of beauty that is birthed within the confines of shadows and begs to be gazed not at, but into. The new Sannhet album, Revisionist, falls into the latter category.
Contained within the tracklist is a mixture of soaring atmospheric hooks and melodies, chunky and fuzzy post-metal riffing and black metal dissonance and blast beats. Sometimes all three characteristics will be included in one track. The blend is a place where the band sits comfortably, as these tracks do not seem like they are crammed with these genres in an effort to say, “Hey, look what we can do!” Such a case is the song ‘Empty Harbor’, which when it begins, sounds as if the ghosts of every crew from every sunken ship beneath that harbor have begun to wander the docks in search of their drowned bodies. This haunting feeling is still in full effect when the track goes from atmospheric to dense as the thick bass tone makes itself known and blast beats rush forward. It’s as if the sailors have decided to resurrect their ghostly vessels from the depths in order to wander the seas forevermore in search of revenge. Not only is the track an excellent example of blend of genres the album offers, but also of the dark beauty that courses through its veins. Somber and majestically haunting while at the same time fiercely intriguing and at times abrasive.
Track by track, a unique identity is forged throughout the duration of the songs, each one having their own ear worms that are nearly impossible to try and shake off. ‘You Thy __’ sounds like it was made for the murky, high-pitched wail of a black metal vocalist, especially due to its liberal use of blast beats. ‘Atrium’ has a fast and aggressive opening riff that leads into mournful, dissonant melodies. The aggressive opening riff is later cloaked in shoegaze-esque, soaring/sighing guitar work. The longest track on the album, ‘Enemy Victorian’ has an extremely gorgeous melancholy melody that propels this track to the top of the ear worm pile, as it will be hummed constantly from the moment you hear it onward. As previously stated, this album truly spoils the listener with instrumental hook after instrumental hook. It is also worth mentioning that the drum work on this album is absolutely outstanding. It never lets up and you really don’t want it to.
What Sannhet have done with Revisionist is let us know that something gorgeous and worthwhile can indeed be found within the dark and deep abyss they shroud their compositions in. The band are not crafting ugly walls of harsh noise that are to be scoffed at or feared, but rather they are crafting a jagged, hazy mural of sound that can be admired for what it is: Beautiful.
Watch a full live performance from Sannhet on our YouTube channel, shot and edited by our very own Nick Cusworth. Beneath that, stream Revisionist from Bandcamp.
Sannhet’s Revisionist gets…
4.5/5
-RC