It’s hard for me to believe Olav Iversen from MANNGARD and Tom Cato Visnes from GORGOROTH will make another appearance together in SAHG. With the black metal experience running through their veins and the shivers of evil expressed through the music of their other bands how can they come to grips without black metal?

I ask you, is KISS, KISS without make-up? NO! Well logic is about to be altered. SAHG is like an updated version of BLACK SABBATH playing streaming metal with potent high velocity guitar licks. Olav Iversen most definitely has the Ozzy vibe going on vocally and the musical slices bound with experimental heavy metal.

The opening track “Ascent to Decadence” is a killer opening that is melodic yet rips the shreds out of your typical metal. It has an atmospheric element and the guitar work of Thomas Tofthagen is bordering on destruction.

Talk about a flashback, if I can recall some of my deepest memories from ancient times… when mind-altering music mixed with black lights and lava lamps reigned supreme. When BLACK SABBATH took music—Metal unheard of heights and “Sun Crossed” parallels that achievement. Olav Iversen vocals are powerful and yet have the ability to take you into trance like state as the music takes you into SAHG’s Metal Fantasy.

“Pyromancer” speeds things up a bit with a faster track than the prior tracks but still keeps the eerie classic sound that permeates the CD. Unfortunately, the predictability of the arrangements on the tracks became somewhat routine and boring. Some changing slightly but still each track contains the down tuning of the guitar, highlights of solos and the echoing that shows up throughout the CD. I was hoping by the great opening track “Ascent to Decadence” this CD would take me through great enjoyment and there are some great songs, but it’s just too much of the same from track to track. The highlight track was “Monomania” and if SAHG had changed directions in some of the songs this could have been a classic release but it just falls short.