Sifr
Blessings of Madness
3.9
Well it seems that Lahore, Pakistan is a thriving metal town, with MetalReview dissecting a second album from there in as many weeks. Well, OK, it's not thriving, but there is one particularly active guy there pumping out metal from the garage. Saquib Malik is the mastermind behind this band, Sifr, as well the album humorously bashed last week, Corpsepyre. Having heard both, I can honestly say that this Sifr project has much more of a future than his other band. Sifr play a raw, somewhat-atmospheric style of extreme metal, combining ass production with rough gargled screams and doomy-deathy riffs with lots of slow progressions. The best comparison I can make is to Countess, as I don't listen to much BM, and the recording job sounds identical to a few tracks I've heard from Countess. The vocals are too far in the front and they are really fuzzy. Step back a few inches from the mic. The guitars are also fuzzy and could stand to be more heavily distorted. Interestingly, when he plays the guitar undistorted, it sounds loud and clear. Sounds like a clear case of small-amp-syndrome. His drumming style is either really unorthodox or just amateur, but it adds some unexpected moments. But, this IS a non-label submission, and we slacken the criteria just a bit. While I'm not bowled over by technicality, Malik is a respectable guitarist. When the vocals drop out, the songs don't sound evil, but maybe cartoonishly evil. Unbeing has some neat clean-guitar action going on. The beginning riffs of Inferno really sounds like he wants to break out some Welcome Home (Sanitarium), but stops just short - probably to avoid a lawsuit. Most of the time though, the songs come off as older death metal played at half-speed. Especially after hearing the Corpsepyre submission, I'd vehemently insist that Malik devote his time and efforts to developing Sifr. I imagine that this would sound much better live, so maybe finding a few other members would be beneficial. My apologies for not making this as entertaining as the Corpsepyre review, but it simply doesn't suck as hard. This isn't my cup of tea, but I've heard internet metal warriors rave over bands much worse than this. Keep the metal flame alive over in Pakistan.
