Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Satan
Label: Metal Blade Records
Release: 2018
Duration: 49:46
Rating: 5/5
If anyone stands by their deeds after more than 30 years in the game, we can say it without hesitation about the cult British N.W.O.B.H.M. heavyweights Satan! With »Cruel Magic« they’ve once again aced every test of time and creative authorship. No beating around the bush, plain and simple: »With highest honors.«
Satan are contemporaries of Iron Maiden, though these days Iron Maiden (drunk on all that commercial gigantism) could stand to learn a thing or two from them. Even in their mature years, Satan remain exceptional old-school metal scoffers who bow to nobody, don’t swear by even a pinch of production kitsch or recording-tech progress, and sound on their new albums like it’s 1981, not 2018! As analog as it gets.
Satan remain total rebels. The most authentic reflection of the old-school British heavy metal statement, beamed from 1977 straight into the present! »Cruel Magic« has the venom, the rage, the evil too! A heap of post-apocalyptic visions and lyrics steeped in the occult, sorcery and the personal downfall of the individual. Brian Ross’s heartfelt, lived-through delivery of the verses blends unbelievably well with the cataclysmic look of the lead phrasing structures and transitional ornaments, in short, with the very structure of the compositions. Brian Ross keeps his incredible vocal explosiveness, his unbelievable power and his range! When he goes for the highest registers and screams, he nails them with piercing conviction. The penetrating, charismatic, recognizable-from-a-mile-away vocal output of this legendary singer, whom Blitzkrieg fans know very well too, remains one of the most striking trademarks of Satan’s music.
»Cruel Magic« follows the charismatic expressiveness of its outstanding predecessor »Atom By Atom«, which people said would be very hard to top, if any new Satan album ever came out at all. In this new era, Satan confirm with a string of concerts that this is an incredibly experienced, focused band in which the energy lines between the members work phenomenally. We experienced that firsthand when we met the band as Satan played the Bang Your Head festival in 2016, as well as the Metaldays festival (the same year). The guys carried that tremendous good mood, excellent stage form and highly inspired creativity over very effectively from »Atom By Atom« to the new album »Cruel Magic« too.
This one is a bit more complicated in its compositional structures, we could say more variably structured, and it even feels slightly more pompous, although an utterly gloomy, post-apocalyptic atmosphere runs through it from start to finish (Ophidian). In 2018, Satan keep a typically raw production straight out of the punk days of the late seventies. The drums deliberately sound tinny (that snare), Satan flat-out refuse to acknowledge double bass drums, and the riffs run dirty and bite like enraged pit bulls. Full of incredible sharpness and unpolished edge. Both guitarists trade outstanding solo duels, often skillfully complementing each other through ornamental passages in harmonized thirds, and they rip through plenty of phrases (at hellish speed). A classic. A perfect N.W.O.B.H.M. classic.
When you compare Satan’s music today with their still-active generational contemporaries like Tygers of Pan Tang, C loven Hoof, Overdrive, Blitzkrieg, Weapon UK and Diamond Head, it’s no exaggeration to conclude, after listening to the latest releases of these bands back to back, that out of all of them, Satan carried the primordial rage of N.W.O.B.H.M. defiance over to their newest work in the most authentic and untainted way! The opener Into the Mouth of Eternity can immediately bring you close to the source code of classic N.W.O.B.H.M. riffage and metal pioneering, the stuff that, say, Metallica fed on creatively and drew inspiration from when they were taking their first steps into the world of metal and started piecing together their first riffs.
»Cruel Magic« is an album you can’t get tired of, it’s that honest and real. In everything it delivers. Full of great insight in its guitar phrasing, which achieves plenty of variety within the songs. There’s a pile of witty passages that confirm the band’s exceptional flexibility in performance and arrangement, and the harmony between all the building blocks of their sound. »Cruel Magic« is an album you can only bow to with the following »note«: »Listen and learn!« The band isn’t running out of dynamite, and let’s hope that this kind of magic, wonderful in all its holy cruelty of vengeance, keeps this legendary band on its feet and running!
Lineup
Brian Ross – vocals
Russ Tippins – guitar
Steve Ramsey – guitar
Graeme English – bass
Sean Taylor – drums
Production
Satan, Dave Curle & Dario Mollo
Tracklist
01. Into The Mouth Of Eternity
02. Cruel Magic
03. The Doomsday Clock
04. Legions Hellbound
05. Ophidian
06. My Prophetic Soul
07. Death Knell For A King
08. Who Among Us
09. Ghosts Of Monongah
10. Mortality
