Album Review - Cadaver Synod (Sylvatica)

The Great Metal Debate Podcast

Welcome back metalheads to a brand new metal album review on The Great Metal Debate podcast. Originally I had planned to review the new album from the Netherlands black metal band Asagraum, but I found something at the last second that completely blew that away. Thanks to the website Angry Metal Guy, I spotted an album cover that intrigued me enough to check it out; especially since the artwork depicts a very weird moment in history. In 897AD, Pope Stephen VI dug up the 9 month old corpse of his predecessor Pope Formosus, dressed him up and brought him to a court trial. You can't always judge a CD by its album cover but to my delightful surprise, the band in question is a wonderful cross between melodic death metal and folk metal. Hey Gomthog, I am 100% certain that you would fall in love with this Denmark based band called Sylvatica and their new album titled Cadaver Synod. This amazing release was dropped on October 20th through Target Records. This is my introduction to the band but they have apparently been around since 2009 and I'm just now hearing of them. The opening track "Strife" starts off with a church sounding organ that sounds ominous in an upbeat sort of way. The guitars coming in behind it with those groovy melodies pretty much tell you exactly what you're getting into. While the vocal style isn't really my type, the music definitely makes up for it. The harsh vocals of the lead guitarist Jarden sounds like he would be in the dwarf themed folk metal band Windrose and the backing shout vocals of bassist Thomas Haxen give off that extra folky feel. Next we have the song "Papa Poltergeist" which has the higher ping notes on a keyboard and strange synths behind the riffs make it the perfect music for any Halloween party. Especially the beginning of the song "Scapegoat" which has the perfect spooky vibe and it reminds me of Scooby-Doo and the gang walking through a graveyard. I love how it has an almost 80s power metal guitar riff in it which sounds larger than life. My only critique is that the word "Scapegoat" gets shouted a little too much making it the most repetitious song on the album, but not enough to annoy me. It's still an easy listen that never really feels like a drag. I skipped over a few tracks to make that point but let's go back to the song "Pope Innocent VIII" as I believe it to be another highlight of this album. The very audible keyboards used throughout this album isn't credited by the metal-archives (my main source of information) so I don't know exactly who to praise. However I will say that it's my favorite part of this gorgeous album. Then we have a track titled "Song of the Leper" which is a beautiful folk metal song complete with a full choir. The first lyric of the song is "Spare a coin for your leper ..." which should remind most people of that viral song from the Netflix show The Witcher. If you don't immediately think of "Toss a coin to your witcher" when you hear it, then maybe you're not keeping up on modern pop culture references. The album concludes with an acoustic version of the song and I can't decide which one I enjoy more. But let's not forget the song before the bonus track. "In The Eyes Of God" has a lot of power metal influence musically but the vocals have more of the melodic death metal tone that I more than approve of. That acoustic part before the final guitar solo was very pleasing to my ears. Again, this band was a very pleasant surprise and I'm glad I stumbled upon them. I will be listening to their previous 2 records Evil Seeds and Ash And Snow for sure after recording this review because I might be missing out of some great material that I should be catching up on. I give this one a 8.5 out of 10. Make sure you buy this record on Bandcamp and show your support for these guys. They are a hidden gem that unfortunately many people might end up skipping over. If you're listening to this review, I can't recommend enough that you give these guys a chance.