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Sarcofago's INRI vs. Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas


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I make no bones about not being the biggest Mayhem fan, but I love that Sarcofago album. Mayhem clearly took a shit load of inspiration from it, and it really shows, as Mayhem's album basically sounds like INRI without the thrash and early death metal influences. INRI might not have the atmosphere of De Mysteriis, but it's greater energy and sloppy punk sound make it totally infectious. Also, no Attila. Which is always good.

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Attila is a love him or hate him vocalist, and I fall into the former camp. His delivery is creative, passionate, and dark, really fitting the mood of the music on De Mysteriis (or anything else he's a part of for that matter). The music on De Mysteriis is simply unparalleled IMO, I've never heard anything else with such a cold, dark atmosphere that still manages to bring out the riffs and solos that black metal shouldn't have forgotten about. Then you've got Hellhammer on drums, and even those that don't like his style can't deny his talent. Perfect tracklist, perfect Pytten production for the sound, I love every bit of it as much as the first time I heard it as a teenager. INRI is a fantastic and massively influential album though. They were one of the main forces responsible for propelling black metal from the first wave to the second (the others being Mayhem and Tormentor). Pioneering, raw, sick, and vicious, that album paved the way for much of what was to come. As good as it is though, it still doesn't top DMDS for me.

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I'm not an Attila fan. The music on De Mysteriis is awesome, and I've warmed up to it overall, a little bit, at BAN's urging, but even when I hear what people like about the vocals, they still ruin it for me. INRI is a special album, I love the energy, and it's more enjoyable for me to listen to because of the vocals, but musically it's not as interesting to me. Haven't listened to either in a while.

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I can agree that Attila's vocals suit the atmosphere of the music' date=' but they're so ridiculous sounding that instead of invoking an evil atmosphere, it feels more a campy, black and white horror movie. His voice is like the clearly visible strings holding up the rubber bats in [i']Dracula.
I tend to enjoy unique vocal deliveries, and I don't feel that it's campy at all. It's wild and all over the place, and I do think that they sound legitimately creepy and haunted, largely due to how varied that delivery is. He doesn't sound like he's just barking into the mic, he's really feeling it, and you can tell even more when you see him perform it live.
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This is like choosing between leather pants and leather jacket; you want both for different reasons even though they are made of the same fabrics. I vote Sarcofago's INRI because it's got thrash and some punk in it, and south american broken english lyrics are pure fucking black metal ^^ DMDS by Mayhem is in my opinion an excellent example of the cold, eerie Norweigan BM atmosphere most people recognize as BM nowadays. Attilas' vocals are one of the reasons that this album hits were it aimed honestly. To you Attila haters out there, I shall only say FUUUUUNEEERAAAAAL... FUCK!

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I've been getting into Sarcofago and they're a really interesting band, but I have to go with Mayhem. Sarcofago are a really good band, but Mayhem is one of the greatest of all time. I don't know that any other black metal band embodies what that genre should be as well as them, especially on De Mysteriis, which seems to really be their defining statement... even if my favorite album by them is actually Deathcrush (basically a noise rock album IMO), and I actually prefer Bathory, Dark Funeral, and [sometimes] Rotting Christ.

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22 minutes ago, Amebix said:

I've been getting into Sarcofago and they're a really interesting band, but I have to go with Mayhem. Sarcofago are a really good band, but Mayhem is one of the greatest of all time. I don't know that any other black metal band embodies what that genre should be as well as them, especially on De Mysteriis, which seems to really be their defining statement... even if my favorite album by them is actually Deathcrush (basically a noise rock album IMO), and I actually prefer Bathory, Dark Funeral, and [sometimes] Rotting Christ.

A little surprised to hear you rate Dark Funeral up with these bands. I really like Dark Funeral, but they're a lot more sort of packaged and polished than the best of Mayhem and Bathory, while lacking the heart of Rotting Christ (or Dissection, or Burzum etc). At least that's my view. They're a cool band though, for sure. 

'Deathcrush' is awesome, and no surprise that a crustpunker like you enjoys it ;)

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6 hours ago, Requiem said:

A little surprised to hear you rate Dark Funeral up with these bands. I really like Dark Funeral, but they're a lot more sort of packaged and polished than the best of Mayhem and Bathory, while lacking the heart of Rotting Christ (or Dissection, or Burzum etc). At least that's my view. They're a cool band though, for sure. 

'Deathcrush' is awesome, and no surprise that a crustpunker like you enjoys it ;)

You're certainly right that I do generally prefer bands a little more on the raw side. I guess the appeal of Dark Funeral is that although they do have the feel of sort of being cleanly packaged, they're super consistent and great at delivering that straightforward, purely black metal sound. Sort of like how the Ramones consistently deliver goofy, garagey punk, or Cannibal Corpse reliably delivers their horror movie extreme metal, Dark Funeral can be counted on to deliver straightforward, pure Norwegian black metal.

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11 minutes ago, Amebix said:

You're certainly right that I do generally prefer bands a little more on the raw side. I guess the appeal of Dark Funeral is that although they do have the feel of sort of being cleanly packaged, they're super consistent and great at delivering that straightforward, purely black metal sound. Sort of like how the Ramones consistently deliver goofy, garagey punk, or Cannibal Corpse reliably delivers their horror movie extreme metal, Dark Funeral can be counted on to deliver straightforward, pure Norwegian black metal.

Or even pure Swedish black metal. ;) 

But yep, I get what you're saying. Great band. 

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'De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas' simply slays 'INRI', although Sarcofogo have a definitely atmosphere to them. But comparing them to possibly the greatest black metal album of all time is a pretty unfair fight. 

Exactly. No matter how many black metal albums that I accumulate (several hundred at this point), simply nothing ever tops DMDS for me. It's exactly what a black metal album should be IMO.

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Certainly not a fair comparison. Aside from the completely different approaches taken by both bands they're from different waves of Black Metal. DMDS is better compared to A Blaze In The Northern Sky imo though it still gets my vote. INRI is probably more favourably matched against To Mega Therion.

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