Sick 

Satanism Sickness Solitude

Spikefarm Records 2009

Experimental black metal weirdness from Belarus.  That pretty much sums up the 9 tracks on Sick's debut album, Satanism Sickness Solitude.  Sick meld industrial elements into black metal with cold, calculated precision.  Helios slowly seeps along with a creeping pace and guitars that crackle with electricity.  Somber clean guitars and a dreary melody drift out the song's conclusion.  Reminding me somewhat of a more industrial Samael, The Way lumbers forward with a stalking tempo, emphasized by electronic cymbal hits and spacey synths which lend the song an astral feel.  Hellsicker cranks up the speed quite  a few notches and adds a dance-beat towards the end that seems like a blander version of Dodheims Gard.  Opening with a simple synth pattern, somewhat like a more mechanical version of Burzum, the cover of Portishead's Wandering Star is a bold move.  They deliver the song a possessed robotic and gothic texture.  A slowly hammering beat matches slowly shifting chords and gruff vocals.  Finally Hologram brings the disk to a close with a mechanized assembly line rhythm section that is fused together with passages of clean guitars and arcing astral keyboards.  Spoken words are inserted into this sleepy amalgam of instrumental directions for an almost dream-like quality.  Satanism Sickness Solitude lacks energy and fails to grab me on a primal level leaving me somewhat disinterested by album's end.  Everything seems a little heavy handed and lacking conviction.  Despite this lack of interest I do detect flashes of originality and creativity.