With each passing week, we seem to be assailed by yet more bands keen to celebrate the twin lodestones of Occultism/Satanism and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (or ‘NWOBHM’ to you and me). In Solitude, Blood Ceremony and various other ‘truer than true’ characters have chosen to celebrate the Devil via the medium of twin guitar harmonies and galloping drums. Enter stage right ‘Satan’s Wrath’, two London-based Greeks who are keen to forge their own tribute to Satan in the only way they know how – True Metal.
Yes indeed, this is as metal as it gets with not a second of this music sounding like it was composed after 1985. A heady cocktail of early Iron Maiden and Hell Awaits-era Slayer, Satan’s Wrath have no interest in anything progressive, post or tech – they just want you to bang your head, drink beer and throw the horns.
And this is fine. It really is. “Leonard Rising – Night of the Whip” kicks things off sounding for all the world like a long-lost Elixir track. The sound, delivery and composition is astoundingly authentic with deft guitar runs and a real sense of high-energy momentum. And so then the vocals arrive and… well, everything gets a bit ‘meh’. You see, multi-instrumentalist Tas Donazoglou ( ex Electric Wizard, who handles drums and bass as well as the lungsmanship) has decided to eschew the melodic approach of many of his peers in this genre and simply roars like a maniac over the whole thing.
‘So what?’ you may shrug ‘loads of bands go down that road’. This is true but as the album progresses, this becomes more and more of a sore point. Put simply, it doesn’t really work. The material isn’t extreme enough to support this sort of vocal approach. The style of rigidly orthodox ‘by the book’ classic metal material performed by Satan’s Wrath more or less DEMANDS proper, fist-in-the-air vocal hooks. Remove that and you’re left with a surprisingly bland stew. Donazoglou’s bellows may be powerful and well-delivered but they are no substitute for proper, considered choruses or vocal lines.
It’s a bit of a shame as the material is undeniably decent – it just needs some proper singing to really bring it to life. So whilst tracks like the proto-Slayer speed metal of ‘Between Belial and Satan’ or the more sinister crawl of ‘Slaves of the Inverted Cross’ are great metal songs, they feel unfinished – empty even. To put it in context, try and imagine Iron Maiden’s ‘Number of the Beast’ with Glen Benton on vocals. Sound appetising? Thought not.
Satan’s Wrath’s dedication to their craft and instrumental ability is not in doubt. There’s real passion oozing from this material and you just feel with some ‘air-raid siren’ vox they could really deliver something special. The potential is certainly there. For now though, for all its charm, I don’t think I’ll find myself returning to ‘Galloping Blasphemy’ all that often.
(6/10 Frank Allain)
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