Saphath – Ascension of the Dark Prophet
Release Date: 8th April 2022
Label: Self Released
Genre: Symphonic Death Metal, Gothic Death Metal.
FFO: Moonspell, Paradise Lost, Cradle of Filth, Dark Tranquillity.
Review By: Rick Farley
Saphath (which is a Slavic folklore name for a river dividing the worlds of the living and dead) formed as a band at the end of 2019 in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk city in the far east of Russia. Comprised of just three members around that time, they begin demoing material influenced by such bands as Moonspell, Dark Tranquillity and Cradle of Filth. Two new members were eventually added, and the demos began evolving a bit more, with a touch of SepticFlesh and Behemoth. A sixth member was brought in to help with the orchestral choir arrangements, which the band wanted to record live rather than be computer generated. She’s an actual choir director and brings an exceptional female voice to the band as well. By the end of 2021, the record was complete and sent to Christian Donaldson of Cryptopsy fame for mixing and mastering.
First single The Raven kicks off with a groovy chugging riff and double bass that could easily get your head banging. The song briefly has a passage where the vocals have a raspy Black Metal spoken part that quickly goes to full on brutal deep growls that complement the catchy guitars. The symphonic parts during the main riffs ring out, creating an almost middle eastern atmosphere in the lush background. When the chorus hits, the song takes a twist to more Scandinavian type melodies with growled guttural vocals. Alexey Duraev’s vocals remind me a bit of Johan Hegg in delivery and sound on this track, which fits the mid to upbeat tempo of the song quite well. Some tasty guitar solo work and haunting female vocals round out the song beautifully. Big hooks, heavy driving riffs and great melodies make this an easy song to like. Lyrically it touches on Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” and it’s accompanied by an extremely cool animated video.
Current single and embedded video Outcast of Eden has an aggressive crunchy guitar riff with serious low-end, crushing everything in its path. The vocals are of a more deliberate in your face growl as opposed to being catchy on this track. Female choirs chanting in the background sounds like it came straight from a horror movie. It gives the song a unique ritualistic atmosphere. There’s also a ripper of a guitar solo shortly past the minute mark, which will burn some faces. About halfway through the track, distorted chords ring out over clean tone guitars as thick textures of piano, choir, and bass serve as a vessel for the deep Gothic monotonic vocals. Alexey clearly has a versatile voice ranging from assorted styles of Death Metal to raspy highs more akin to Black Metal and of course clean Gothic style singing. The same can be said of Alexandra’s enchanting and haunting voice. Her layered choirs are captivating, emotional and could charm even the darkest umbra within the pitch-black soundscapes.
For my personal tastes, though, some of the male gothic singing can be a bit much and creates a couple of songs that don’t resonate as well with me. A few criticisms, The Daughter of Ice Plains suffers a bit from an awkward Gothic singing style during the confusing verse riff, which makes the song sound a bit clunky. It also kind of ends abruptly and sort of feels unfinished. Another track, Language of my Pain, has some clean vocal melodies that are just too on the money of typical baritone Goth Rock/Metal vocals. I do skip both songs, but again this album clearly has lots of Gothic elements that I really enjoy, so it’s a me thing. Also, those two songs could easily grow on me over time. We’ll see!
Ascension of the Dark Prophet musically embodies a dark symphonic mixture of Death Metal, Black Metal and Gothic Metal. Full of brutal riffs that are hell-bent on punching your face repeatedly, huge, layered choirs and orchestration that’s not only gorgeous but often terrifying. Soaring melodies, and sinister deep cleans mixed with spoken passages and a healthy amount of Death Metal vocals continuously bring extreme variance to each song. Light, dark, good and evil.
Lyrically, the songs follow a style of classic English poetry. Internal and external battles within society, religion and the world itself. As diverse as everything is, it retains a smooth continuity throughout the entire album and gives everyone in the band ample room to shine. The mix is outstanding, its rich, full, and crisp. Saphath sort of comes out of left field, being a new band that’s so broadly structured. A lesser band would have a hard time melding this all together, but there’s a tremendous balance found here between dark, brutal and beautiful that’s mesmerized me enough to call myself a fan. 
(4 / 5)
