Six years after The Malefic: Chapter III, a daring death metal piece consisting of four songs, was spawned onto the world, Egyptian-American multi-media artist Nader Sadek returns with another EP, entitled The Serapeum. Also consisting of four songs, The Serapeum may be interpreted as a forerunner to a coming full-length album, which will carry the name of Malefic and shall be released during the first half of 2021.
Nader Sadek rounded up distinguished musicians for the recording of The Serapeum, namely Karl Sanders (Nile), Derek Roddy (Serpents Rise) and Mahumud Gecekusu (Perversion), and invited them to a journey through Egypt in order to get inspiration for the recording process. It goes without saying that the title of the EP The Serapeum, which denotes an ancient Egyptian subterranean burial chamber, was inspired by this trip.
Additionally, Nader Sadek have made use of various guest musicians and special techniques as well as gimmicks to intensify the atmosphere present on The Serapeum, as one may hear on the just-released trailer.
The title track of the album appears in two versions, while one – ‘The Serapeum: Black Osiris’ – showing the typical trademark black and death metal sound of Nader Sadek with artist Morean (Dark Fortress, Alkaloid) and Shaun LaCanne (Putrid Pile) appear as guest vocalists as well as Karl Sanders providing a guitar solo. The other – ‘The Serapeum: Polluted Waters’ – may be understood as experimenting with including eastern harmonies and drones into the sound of Nader Sadek. The third new composition, entitled ‘ReSarcophogus’, has to be understood as a connection piece between the two versions of The Serapeum. Most notably, Nader Sadek tried to evoke the feeling of ancient Egypt by actually recording parts of the EP in pyramids, burial chambers and even inside a sarcophagus, as the artist himself states: “By recording in the Serapeum and the Red Pyramid, not only did we want to take advantage of the amazing acoustic effects of these ancient structures, we wanted to explore how the powers-that-be arrogantly dismiss that which they don’t understand.“
The Serapeum tracklist:
1. The Serapeum: Black Osiris
2. ReSarcophogus
3. The Serapeum: Polluted Waters
4. The Serapeum (Live) [featuring members of Bandwhore, Benighted, and Ex-Pestilence]
The EP was mixed and mastered by engineers Mahmud Gecekusu, Mendel Bij De Leij, and Ahdy Khairat.
The Serapeum will be released on 20 November 2020 independently on CD and digitally. Pre-orders are already possible at this location.
More information about the band can be found on their Facebook-Page.
