Here’s to a band with an (alleged) understanding that traditional Swedeath will be a difficult sell to an audience conditioned on too much Rogga Johansson1 and little else. So, Sarcasm gave their offering a little push to move outside of the confines of THAT Swedish brand of metal. To get a breath of fresh air and some room to maneuver, I reckon. And who can blame them? The aforementioned genre itself is sadly overcrowded and is fraught with – norms after all.
So, let Lifeforce Omnibound shine its sickly light unto us measly dwellers of the metalverse and teach us the errors of our ways. Especially when the lyrics were brought to us by – ethereal forces, we are told?2 Or something. But hey, bring it on. This crew’s here for the music.
It shows, you know. The moment Essence of Existence hit our monitors, their credo to move out of the confines of the local Death Metal comfort zone became apparent. True, you can feel the foundation firmly anchored in the Swedish realms. But that’s about where the comparison stops. Sarcasm freely mix blackened beats with DM proper, sudden breakdowns into acoustic mode when the tune is still covered in Death Metal’s blood. Weird, almost baroque musings suddenly got kicked in the teeth when original member Heval Bozarslan (Third Storm) brought destruction and misery with his wrath-inducing, merciless rasps. Case in point, turn to Plunged Into A Paradox. Harsh Black Metal greets you with some vengeance, just to disintegrate into some wild, acoustic exploration tour.
And I daresay, you find a fair slice of At The Gates baked into Lifeforce Omnibound throughout the record. All of that comes with a potpourri of influences. Such as melodious yet serious hints at Dark Tranquility, some Vomitory-esque shenanigans, and many more. But the most astonishing attribute on offer is not the band twisting themselves into pretzels to deliver something a bit more melodic. It is the frequent breaks into some acoustically flavored delirium of sorts. One of the most memorable ones dwells on The Reward of Adversity with its violin ‘n’ piano bridge leading into a monologue, starting at 2:25 or so. The piece is full of them, and it would be too much to list them all. The fact that the changes from metal to acoustic can be too abrupt and badly refined is one of the negatives of this record. And even attempts to invoke the Stockholm Syndrome won’t change that sentiment.
Lifeforce Omnibound contains loads of complexity, true. But you won’t find many issues with the production itself. Except for the last two tracks. The combo A Concept Older Than Time / Empirical Life Metaphysical doesn’t coexist, it collides. I reckon the first one should serve as some sort of interlude leading into the second, metaphysical one. Yet, it artlessly cuts off at 2:11 and stomps directly into the weirdly structured last official track with an utterly different direction on a boring tack of questionable quality. So, if this was part of the plan, this reviewer didn’t quite get the memo. Instead, at first, we thought our gear just malfunctioned. Which it did not, obviously.
So, welcome to Weirdistan! Lifeforce Omnibound was a wild and often disconcerting ride. Unplugged from Swedeath proper, this record magnanimously waltzed straight over a large number of genres and, in passing, produced one of the most cohesively addictive brands of Death Metal the RMR crew encountered so far. Sarcasm truly have a thing going there. If only they wouldn’t adorn themselves with some unforced errors, like the aforementioned disjointed mess on the last two tracks. But apart from that, there’s a lot that speaks for moar of this lifeforce extending fare to surely surge forth in a year or two.
Record Rating: 6/10 | Label: Hammerheart Records | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 29 May 2026