Sjuk is a French Pagan and Folk Metal act that formed back in 2007. Roughly two years of being together, the band finally came together and recorded their first four song offering, a demo titled Wolf is Coming. Since then, the group has made the demo available for download for free on their website, and at the time of writing this is still there. But, even at the cost of nothing, is it even worth giving a second glance given the number of bands that flooded the style with carbon copies of many pioneers to it?
This demo is clearly financed with a pretty low-budget, and in the end that really does hurt it overall. The vocals are a guttural performance that is hidden in the back of the music, or at times just completely drowned out, and the keyboards sound horrible and clearly a default setting. Even the flute being played comes off inhuman, but may very well not be and simply due to how loud they are in the mix when used. The drums sound alright, but when the music does pick up, they too can be drowned out. The cymbals are kinda loud, while the snares are a little thicker and a much lower volume, not much louder than the thudding bass kicks that are pretty much impossible to hear sometimes. The guitars come through well, as does the bass, and the latter instrument is the one that does its job well. The guitars here also end up too loud, and when shifting in distortion it becomes really obvious thanks to the volume and lack of good transitions.
But you wouldn't know this from the start. "Intro - Freyja Part I" is actually really impressive at the beginning. The acoustic guitar sounds fantastic in the mix at a proper level with some keyboards that have a slight epic feel to their sound, but are somewhat held down for the somber tone of the music, gradually building into the addition of flutes that sound alright, eventually picking up into a rich song that does sound raw, but everything is at the proper levels and nothing feels cheap. The music to this demo really isn't too complex, and that becomes the biggest problem for it, especially on "Frojd's Booze." The shifts in distortion on the guitars are a little too sudden, there's a good deal of empty audio here and there, and while the gutturals are far more obvious here, they sound weak. The keyboards vary between that slight epic tone to the more default sound as well. Overall, the song isn't bad, but it's the audio quality you need to try to look past, and that's pretty rough, especially with how simple the keyboards end up being on "Einherjar in the Valholl," which really pushes the default setting on the instrument out in the open far more than other tracks.
But, with all disparaging remarks aside, this demo does end up with some decent material as far as the band's performance goes, though nothing too note worthy. That is, until you reach the final track. Having a rich sound similar to "Intro - Freyja Part I," the demo concludes with "On the Sea" that doesn't really go with that default, generic keyboard sound for long, the flutes are rarely used which allows the organ and other keyboard sounds to shine through nicely. All of what made the past two songs less than enjoyable seems to be erased here, and overall it does make for rather solid track all around, making you actually want to listen to the last just under five minutes of the demo and not want to hit the stop button from the generic sounds captured on such a low-budget recording.
With an audio that clearly sounds like it was all just recorded directly into a computer with no mastering or concern for levels, the rushed demo shows some promise towards the end at least, as well as during the introductory track. It's not a bad start for Sjuk, but it definitely doesn't put the band's best foot forward if some instruments are going to so as insanely generic as it does here for future recordings. Since it's free to download at this point, it's worth taking a few moments to sample if you have nothing better to listen to. Other than that, you're not missing out on much this time around.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Sjuk. |
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