5 Albums I Want To Be Buried With #43: Shargaas!

Does adding bourbon to a Pumpkin Spiced Latte make it count as a hangover cure? As the world begins to recover from Halloween, we return to a place of oppressive atmospheres, heavy riffs and ominous sounds laced with anti-religious rhetoric and thoughts of violence created by Wa’arth. He’s the mastermind behind Russian Black Death Metal project Shargaas an entity born of blending Extreme Death Metal sounds with the aggression of Black Metal. After reviewing debut EP “…And Let Them Burn” we spoke to Wa’arth about the albums he’d take to the afterlife to listen to ad infinitum and that conversation went something like this…

The premise is simple: “Back in ancient Egypt they believed that the items their Kings were buried with would travel with them into the afterlife and so part of the burial ritual would see the mummified bodies surrounded by chariots, gold and more. Fast forward to now. If there were five albums that you’d want buried in the coffin with you to take to the afterlife, what would you choose?”

1. Leviathan – “Scar Sighted”

“This album has a kind of otherworldly sound. Not only because of the ambient elements, but also because of some distant guitar sound, vocals, cyclical patterns, and dirt. I love listening to this album when I’m going through a tough time. It puts you in a kind of trance and clears your head of any thoughts. Simple, but so good.”

2. Gorgoroth – “Instinctus Bestialis”

“Gorgoroth is one of my favorite bands. I’ve always liked how they managed to combine anger, a certain rawness, and something very heavy and sad. In my opinion, this particular album is on the border between black metal and death metal. It combines fairly heavy riffs with an atmosphere of darkness and pain. I think that if the afterlife is hell, then Instinctus Bestialis is how it sounds”

3. Anaal Nathrakh – “A New Kind of Horror”

“This is death. This album is exactly what I imagine hell to be like. It’s dark, dirty, chaotic, yet even consistent. Here, darkness clashes with cruelty and gives birth to the most repulsive and terrifyingly captivating union.”

4. Bloodbath – “Nightmares Made Flesh”

“Bloodbath is a rather unusual band for me. It has strong death metal traits, but at the same time, I see a certain dark and ominous atmosphere in it, which is what sets them apart from other bands in the genre. I love this particular album because the animalistic fury here is so deep that you can barely see the bottom. This release is aggressive, brutal, dark, and just damn cool.”

5. Nunslaughter – “Red is the Color of Ripping Death”

“I stumbled upon this band completely by accident, and I’m really glad I did. I love the atmosphere of their albums — aggressive, brutal, and moderately raw. What really gets me going are their absurd lyrics, which perfectly complement the atmosphere of absurd hatred. I can’t say much about their album. It’s just awesome. Simple, but incredibly catchy.“