Label: Metal Blade Records
Release date: April 1, 2022
Production: Satan
Album length: 47.36 min
Genre: Heavy Metal / N.W.O.B.H.M.
Rating: 9.0/10
And here’s yet another Satan album. The band, which has been enjoying a renaissance in recent years, is regarded as a cult representative of the N.W.O.B.H.M. era. That renaissance has now been going for a good ten years, and in that time we’ve gotten a fourth album in a row. Sixth overall for Satan. Count the stretches when they temporarily operated under the altered names Blind Fury and Pariah, and that would make nine today.
What’s fascinating about Satan is that time doesn’t matter to them. The break of more than twenty years was finally ended in 2011, and with their last four albums the band is trying, in a way, to make up for all those lost years. And it does so mighty convincingly. With a fascinating run of new studio albums that stand shoulder to shoulder with the classics “Court In The Act” (1983) and “Suspended Sentence” (1987). So welcome to the absolute kingdom of the Devil, of vast whiffs of sulfur, where air-raid sirens accompany you as endless swarms of the fly plague invade.
A fair few of their generational contemporaries are still kicking, but if we single out Satan, we can say they may even be the most convincing of the lot when it comes to reviving the vibe of the turn of the seventies into the eighties, when the N.W.O.B.H.M. movement erupted. It’s not just that Satan don’t use a double bass pedal, just like, among others, their peers Iron Maiden don’t. What sticks out far more than nitpicking over that ‘trifle’ of British conservatism is that incredibly mocking, abrasive and, to a certain extent, even ironic attitude, conditioned by a downright ‘outdated’ production (purists may be put off by the ‘garage rawness’ that’s closer to late-seventies punk than to anything else), and that very thing hands the band, precisely when it comes to restoring the classic days of metal from more than 40 years ago, a winning poker ace. They could write long, serpentine songs that induce ‘yawning,’ as their fellow countrymen Iron Maiden do, especially on their latest album, but Satan are a different kind of beast. They know only top gear. They write and play the fastest possible version of the ossified version of metal. As if not more than 40 years had passed between 1979 and 2022, but only some three or four. With Satan there’s no room for frills, kitsch, or production tricks that would strip the band of the high-octane bolt of its extremely mocking, ominous, ‘unadapted’ frenzied attitude, where dystopian vistas and the occult couldn’t ignite any better. Alongside the snarling phrasing of the inexhaustibly inventive guitar duo Ramsey/Tippins, who deliver top-notch work on the solos and all the added embellishments (plenty of three-part harmonies) too, there’s of course vocalist Brian Ross (the guy visited the Metaldays festival in Tolmin with Blitzkrieg years ago). He simply has to be here, because without him a big chunk of the magical essence that gives this band’s music its very special place in the heavy metal universe would be gone. Why Satan so convincingly chase the authenticity of the times when metal was a young creature on “Earth Infernal” too is a little easier to explain by the fact that they still operate in the same lineup that recorded, among others, “Court In The Act” and “Suspended Sentence”.
“Earth Infernal” too, just like “Cruel Magic” (2018, RockLine review) before it, rolls along devastatingly. Old-school, but bloodthirsty. It’s a fireball that leaves dust and ashes in its wake and knows no forgiveness, mercy or survivors. Brian Ross sings phenomenally for his age. His vocals add that dark theatricality, summon doom, and give you the feeling that ‘Judgment Day’ is shadowing every second of this album. With the devastating opening assault Ascendancy, “Earth Infernal” instantly becomes a lovable nostalgic temptation backed by an old musical recipe. A forgotten recipe. A recipe that only the chemistry of this unchanged Satan lineup can pull off. Like climbing into a Sopwith Camel in 2022. Especially devastating are the two shortest tracks, The Blood Ran Deep and From Second Sight. There’s even a short instrumental, Mercury’s Shadow, which keeps the album’s varied stance going, but above all the winning moments are the ones where the band ‘complicates’ things a little. The punch and technical skill in which both guitarists reign come even more to the fore in these moments. Burning Portrait, then Twelve Infernal Lords, or the closing, distinctly gloomy epic, packed with atmospheric upheavals, called Earth We Bequeath. Even though the stylistic stance is clear and unique, an enormous amount happens over a little under 48 minutes of playing time. “Earth Infernal” doesn’t run out of devastating salvos of dynamite for a second. The glow of creative inspiration in the studio must have been simply exceptional.
The legends have thus added another phenomenal chapter to their story from the ‘Middle Earth Ages.’ Had “Earth Infernal” been made in, say, 1983, we’d have enjoyed it especially for its noisy fury and speed, as well as for the technical chops that were notable at the time. Today those attributes were surpassed long ago and so aren’t special at all. What is special in 2022 is the very aura of albums like “Earth Infernal.” The album has a unique energetic vibe and chemistry. The recipe from those ancient days couldn’t work any better than when it’s handled (even 40 years later) by the musicians who actually founded it. The ‘uncles,’ now sliding into their sixties, are keeping in true form and playing like razor-sharp 20-year-old studs, next to whom the newer heavy metal revivalist bands, who enjoy considerably wider recognition than Satan, can only blush quietly.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Ascendancy
2. Burning Portrait
3. Twelve Infernal Lords
4. Mercury’s Shadow
5. A Sorrow Unspent
6. Luciferic
7. From Second Sight
8. Poison Elegy
9. The Blood Ran Deep
10. Earth We Bequeath
Lineup:
Brian Ross – vocals
Russ Tippins – guitar
Steve Ramsey – guitar
Graeme English – bass
Sean Taylor – drums
