Sicarius started with a fury in 2017 when the California black metal newcomers released their brutally violent debut album, Serenade of Slitting Throats, which won the metallic heart of AMG’s Diabolus in Muzaka, earning the coveted 4.0. Sicarius‘ second album, 2020’s God of Dead Roots, didn’t fare as well; the band, adapting to the departure of founding guitarist Argyris, ultimately delivered a less visceral, more routine product. Then, when original drummer Brandon Zackay left to focus on his career with Whitechapel, and the remaining members departed, both voluntarily and not, Sicarius seemingly died, leaving God of Dead Roots as an unexpected swan song.
Fast forward to 2024, when Argyris reunited with original bassist Carnage and joined forces with new singer Akéfalos and session drummer Levi Xvl to begin recording a third album, Nex, which, after six whole years, arrived to reintroduce this resurrected version of Sicarius to the public.
Sicarius of the resurrection don’t sound much different from the Sicarius that died. Nex follows the same modern black metal type as its predecessors, retaining channels of influence from Dissection, Dark Funeral, Urgehal and, despite Mick Kenney’s departure from the console, Anaal Nathrakh. According to the Latin translation of their name, Sicarius bring to battle a whole quiver of assassin’s weapons. Argyris sounds rejuvenated and lethal, his arsenal full of fiery riffs (“Cold Death”, “No Witnesses”), chaotic tremolodic leads (“Nex”) and smart solos (“Crashing Into the Abyss”) in full display. Newcomer Akéfalos adds a layer of frost to the surgical, cold steel of Nex over a warm throaty sound, with his icy, high shrieks being a mix of Abbath and Hat from early Gorgoroth, while his low, guttural growls recall Rotting Christ. Nex has the sound of an angry band, Sicarius trying to bury the remnants of the past for something altogether more destructive.
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There’s no doubt that Sicarius are exceptionally capable at speed, but for my own tastes, I connected more with the melodies of Nex and the mixed tempos. Starting with a dark, tremoloed guitar melody, “Opened Obsidian Gateways” uses Sargeist-type layers of repetition to establish its earwormy chord sequences, a variation used during the verses and reproduced identically in the bridge before slipping into a nice mid-song chug section and then back again. Simple but effective, the track is a highlight as I caught myself humming the melody at random during the day. Also noteworthy are the slow-moving melodic strings of “Banshee”, which gave off Dissection vibes, and the mid-paced “The Hunger We Cannot Sate”, as it gallops in the true manner of Watain, inducing levels of black-n-roll headbanging over its 5:24 duration. There’s a lot of musical nuance woven into the details of Nex; my many play-throughs confirm it, which makes it all the more frustrating that they’re so hard to hear.
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“With a (t)reble scream he cried, NO more, more, more.” I’ve taken some small liberties with Mr. Idol’s classic lyric to illustrate Nex‘s most obvious flaw: a thin, unbalanced mix. Nex sounds much louder than its DR score suggests. Serenade of Slitting Throats, for example, with a DR lower than Nex‘s, sounds light years warmer because Kenney managed to give weight to Serenade‘s low end. Nex is almost empty of low end, completely cancelling out anything Carnage does on bass and robbing much of the power from Levi Xvl’s bass drum, making the experience extremely exhausting. In fact, I was forced to interrupt my focused listening sessions, because trying to hear all 44:10 of Nex left me so aurally exhausted that I was looking for aspirin. If that was a conscious choice, I don’t know. It certainly gives Sicarius a colder-than-you edge, as is known for black metal of this kind, but it really robbed me of much of my enjoyment, which is a shame because, in small doses, Nex is actually a pretty good album.
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Sicarius returned with a vengeance and a “we’re-not-joking” attitude, as shown largely by the violently distinctive cover art. Along with other bands like Impious Throne, Unholy Altar and Wuldorgast, Sicarius bring back a sense of threat to the US black metal scene. Nex is an album worth hearing, even though it’s hampered by a production that makes it too tiring to listen to in one sitting, which led me to rate it as follows. Even so, I’ll be keeping my eyes and ears open for the next release.
Rating : 2.5/5.0
DR : 6 | Format reviewed : 320kbps mp3
Record label : Adirondack Black Mass | Bandcamp (album)
Websites : Bandcamp | Worldwide releases Instagram : April 10, 2026
