Album Review: Shaam Larein – Sticka En Kniv I Världen
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
If you thought the genre of Gothic Post-Punk had been sewn up by Christian Death, then think again. For Shaam Larein – the band, named after their singer – have returned for their second full-length. Following on from 2020’s Sculpture record, the Swedes sophomore album, Sticka En Kniv I Världen – which, I’m informed, translates to “Stick a Knife into the World”, though this is under advisement as my Swedish is rudimentary at best – is about to land.
Front-woman, Shaam’s, extraordinarily eclectic background and influences are apparent throughout Sticka’s duration; taking inspiration from her Syrian roots and filtering them through experience of the theatrical arts, the band’s music becomes an amalgam of the dark and doomy and the dramatic structures of middle eastern melodies and scales.
The title track sets the scene for the seven to follow. Harsh, ripping chords combine with crushingly morose sections and interludes of stark musical beauty dominate both track and album. Flesh of Gold is gloriously gothic and built around a haunting refrain; the nineteenth-century ghost-story titled, I Have No Face, sees sparse drumbeats dropping like bombs as unsettling guitar accompaniment lodges itself into your brain. Similarly, the dark hums and spacious musicality opens Leave Me Here to Die to evoke the bleak and desolate moors of a Bronte novel, while the bass-pulse of Murderer calls to mind Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart.
It's not all doom and gloom – or maybe it is, but these parts are relative – as the music occasionally takes a turn for the more upbeat and quickened tempo. The equally Gothically titled Beware the Duchess is no less twisting than any of its more meandering brethren but it employs an unmistakeably jagged and jazzy closing section. Caress my Thoughts looks to borrow from fellow-Swedes, Opeth’s, latter sound by dropping big waves of crunching chords into the mix, along with a distinctly seventies sounding organ.
Closing track, Massacre, take the sound back in an anachronistic direction by summoning the spirit of a progressively-minded Deep Purple in its keyboard parts, combining these with the other ideas from across the album.
Shaam’s vocals occupy a space usually taken by Siouxsie Sioux, mixing in a hearty dose of Christian Death’s Maitri Nicolai to give an otherworldly accompaniment to the gothic doom on offer. As unsettling as any horror film you care to mention, Sticka En Kniv I Världen feels as though it is crying out for a monochrome video, filmed at the most imposing of rambling piles on the bleakest of moors.
