Album Review: Revisionist by Sannhet

New York instrumental post-metal outfit Sannhet release their new album Revisionist on the 3^rd of March via The Flenser Records. It’s an epic record spanning many moods and genres. It’s challenging yet awe inspiring from the outset.

You never know which way Revisionist is going to go, but you can be assured its roots are submerged in dark, sludgey riffs. It’s the combination of math-rock, metal, doom, pop bridges and a metalgaze edge (think Deafheaven) that make this such a compelling listen.

Title track and opener ‘Revisionist’ is crushingly dark and heavy. Those riffs will pummel you to within an inch of your life. ‘Lost Crown’ blows you away with its intricacies with the percussion just coming in shy of overbearing. It’s on the expansive post-rock sounding ‘Enemy Victorian’ that Sannhet really come to the fore. It is six minutes of unbridled, glorious guitars and a driving rhythm section. The guitars wash over you, taking you to a higher plane. As they build and build they sound euphoric – in stark contrast to the doom riffs found elsewhere on Revisionist). Thrilling and captivating.

‘You Thy __’ masters math-metal with aplomb. Intricate and driving, the crushing riffs and blast beats sit well beside lavish and seemingly endless guitar solos. The urgency of the opening to ‘Atrium’ sends shivers down the spine, before turning into a brilliant metalgaze sound. The abrasive guitar is shed for some percussion which time signature defies logic – again it comes in just the right side of headache territory.

‘Empty Harbour’ serves up some introspective post-rock – the guitar splutters over a heavy bass line before exploding around the two minute mark. The bass is thunderous, penetrating to the very core of your sole. The final minute is a real aural assault – there’s a barrage of drums, both heavy and intricate riffs and a pulsating bass line that leaves you questioning what you’ve just heard.

Thankfully ‘Mint Divine’ is easier to handle – expansive and almost delicate it’s exactly what is needed before another awe inspiring track in album closer ‘False Pass’. Vicious and unrelenting, ‘False Pass’ takes all the finest qualities of the preceding 8 tracks and packages it an outstanding 5 minutes.

Revisionist will make you stand up and take notice of Sannhet. It’s quite the challenging listen – it’ll take all your attention to take in and understand what is going on. It’s not for the faint hearted and you certainly won’t be playing it for the young or elderly, but it is a superbly complex and varied album. If it doesn’t click on first listen, persevere, it’s well worth it.

AD Rating 7.5/10