The 1980 Listening Post - Sorcery - Till Death Do We Part

 Reviewed by Chris Roberts

Released: 1980 Sorcery Till Death Do We Part Genre: Proto Doom Metal/Heavy Rock Rating: 3 out of 5 Just in case one of you TLPers gets super-excited about this album, just know the average purchase price is $600 on vinyl. The good news is there are three copies available on Discogs, all in VG+ condition or better, so you won’t have to worry about too much surface noise disrupting your listening experience. I expect for many listeners, surface noise would be preferable, but even a CD version is pretty hard to come by for this metal-legendary band. For everyone else (this reviewer included) you’re stuck listening to Sorcery’s second LP, Till Death Do We Part on YouTube. But before we do that, TAKE A LOOK AT THAT ALBUM COVER!!!!! As a lifelong fan of the genre, this art suggests an incredibly promising early 80s private press, proto-doom metal experience. We’ve got satanic rituals with hooded figures! Stained glass! A snake! Gothic type! Hand printed journal type! An overzealous embalmer! All rendered with so much attention to detail and passion, without that stupid glossy, professional sheen. Some metalheads I know revere this band, so I can hardly wait! Chris listens to the album while writing the above paragraphs. Hmph. Till Death Do Us Part is not what I expected. You probably don’t need to like heavy metal to enjoy this, but I’m not sure it makes a difference either. If I’d spent $600 to listen to it, I would definitely be disappointed since it sounds like the awful recording cost about a nickel. (I wonder if I could commission cover artist Janetta Lewis to draw an original 12x12 image for $600?). I imagined a Venom-meets-Slayer (with maybe even a little Ghost) experience, but I can see that’s unfair. We’re fifty years removed from the birth of NWOBHM—even Judas Priest or Black Sabbath can feel tame compared to black or death metal acts like Cannibal Corpse or Behemoth. It can be hard to remember that blues, psych and acid were all a part of metal’s early years before NWOBHM and punk changed it all up. Mostly Till Death Do Us Part reminds me of a poorly recorded Blue Oyster Cult boogie album with some Halloween sound-effects thrown in. There’s some Black Sabbath spooky-scary keyboard sounds but there’s more Jerry Lee Lewis keyboard sounds. More “Smokin’ In The Boys Room” than “Smoke On The Water,” but there’s certainly a green haze throughout. If you’re going to check it out, listen to the first two tracks, “Ogre” and “Ruby Red,” but there’s enough here to let the whole thing play through once. I preferred Sorcery’s superior 1978 double LP debut, Sinister Soldiers (also only on YouTube unless you’ve got a grand to spend). It sounds like a slightly better recording, with a less annoying singer (Tim Barrett) and badass song titles like “Aracnid,” “Planet Schizoid” and “Snowshit.”