Finnish death metal quartet, SADISTIK FOREST, is back to hammer us to within an inch of our lives with their deliciously dark EP "Obscure Old Remains". After their last release, the glorious blood-curdling 2018 album "Morbid Majesties", fans of these morbidly morose fellows have no doubt been waiting for their ice-cold black hearts to be thawed and filled with the magnificently macabre sonics of the repugnant foursome. Well, wait no more; "Obscure Old Remains" is stomach-turning brilliance, with SADISTIK FOREST exposing their sadistic souls and serving up nothing short of sublimely twisted cold, dark grooves.

The first observation you'll make when you listen to "Obscure Old Remains", is that the guys have ramped up the leaning towards a more thrash output in their sound, opting to amp up and execute a decidedly cleaner delivery compared to previous releases. "Mandragore" spews open with Jimi's pummelling drum line and the ferocity of frenzied guitars blisters, offering great quality riffing. The deep-rooted bass line churns, penetrating you to your disgusting core, whilst the blast-beats intertwined with Markus' harsh vocals come with metaphorical claws that puncture your skin and pierce with flesh-ripping brilliance. Next up, "Barbarian" comes with an almost ironic, happy-go-lucky hook, this track really delights. It projects enough savagery in its onslaught of rage, and its brutality gives you a decent blow, but it dishes out an equal measure of infectious grooves. Again, the pure obliteration of the bloody blast beats is immense, which, combined with the complete crescendo to a full, thick brick wall of sound, and the screams of "Barbariaaaaaaan", ooh, it gets you good!

Now, those dirty grooves that I mentioned earlier, they REALLY kick in at the opening of "Nihil", with the militaristic familiarity of BOLT THROWER. SADISTIK FOREST's brilliance with sound is intoxicating, even realizing that it would emit noxious stench if it came with a smell. They meld blackened thrash chugs down your throat in the most insatiable way with melodic dual guitar action that welds to your ears. Vocally, Markus has a gritted bellow that snuffs you out like a candle in the breeze, and his perfectly playful bass line later in the track, combined with teased guitar licks, feel like a sick game of cat and mouse. Everything simply erupts, like pressure to a pimple, and is equally as disgustingly satisfying. And speaking of satisfying, SADISTIK FOREST wrap up "Obscure Old Remains" with sharp coolness of doom tones in "Waters Black" which really feeds the soul. The build-up on this track is gradual, plunging you into abyssal depths with an infernal murky quality about it. You're ravaged by bass and guitar lines, brutalized by drums and hammered by gutturals like there's no tomorrow. It's an apt ending to an all-round fantastic listen of four well-structured unearthly tracks. And there we have it. A short, but sweet, quality-over-quantity take on how contemporary death metal should be delivered.

SADISTIK FOREST isn't QUITE as filthy as a putrid cesspit with dysentery in the latest EP, but they're not far off; they're deliciously despicable and offer up a more mature antagonizing affliction that works so well. The last few years has clearly given the guys the chance for organic growth in their craft and it really shows in "Obscure Old Remains". SADISTIK FOREST still delightfully sodomize you with sound, but there's a little more foreplay involved this time around, and that's never a bad thing!