The Order of the Broken Sword is a moniker used to describe a collective of USA based extreme metal outfits who share a particular ideology or interlinking thematic lore within their musical projects. One contingent of this curious order is Sigorspéd, a trio consisting of guitarist L. Azathoth (also of Azathoth’s Dream and Luring), vocalist Feral Spirit (also of Luring and Wuldorgast), and drummer Taranis. Sigorspéd have released their debut full-length album, and it is a harsh, hasty, war-torn Black Metal release that delves, bronze helmet first into medieval and pagan themes.
The overall sound of ‘Everlasting Wisdom of the Ancients’ is clearly intended to fill the golden chalices of traditional Black Metal puritans with some fine audible wine. The reasonably raw, low fidelity approach is complemented by the dense compositions and charging intensity of these performances, thus making for a track list worthy of sounding the horns to your next medieval cavalry charge. The advanced tempo of the album is a clear statement of intent and so many of the songs sit somewhere between the industrial sub machine percussiveness of the classic Panzer Division Marduk album and the medieval fantasy battle fanfare found on legions of nineties Scandinavian Black Metal records.
The second track entitled ‘Legacy’ explodes into your ear drums like some sort of hefty battering ram annihilating a set of fortified castle gates. The song gallops along with ridiculous pace to a descending torrent of rhythm guitars, propelled by the impressive drum performance. The band works a good amount of atmosphere into the runtime with steel clanging battle sounds on an interlude like ‘Twin Blades of the Order’ or the virtually optimistic sounding cleaner guitars that open up ‘First Assault’ before the band plunges you back into the flailing bloodshed of the core songs.
For all of the clear passionate aggression on display, the album rarely ventures into any territory that isn’t simply showcasing extremely well trodden Black Metal tendencies. It’s for this reason that this Sigorspéd album is unlikely to stick out in my memory amongst a sea of similar sounding albums that I have digested this year. The band clearly has the performative chops to blow your chainmail to tattered pieces, but if, and when we get another release from Sigorspéd I would like to hope that they can apply some more ambitious, impressive and engaging songwriting to really tap into their potential.
