Portland’s Satyress have the misfortune of releasing their debut at a time when occult rock bands the world over are chomping at the bit to become the new The Devil’s Blood. Despite forming back in 2012, the band have only now let ‘Dark Fortunes’ see the light of day.
Jamie LaRose’s vocals take centre stage on this record and there is definitely a distinctive homage to Farida Lemouchi in her silky blues-drenched tones. The guitars, bass and drums bring nothing original to the table, with textbook Black Sabbath influences and a rumbling low end ever present in the instrumental portions of the music.
Lyrics and song titles are fairly standard and what you’d expect from a doom/occult rock band with songs like ‘Possession’ and lines such as “darkness saved my life” on track ‘Esta Noche’. There isn’t really an awful lot to say about this album; it’s by no means bad, but there’s absolutely nothing that makes it stand out from the dozens of other bands currently out there that sound exactly the same.
As far as doom and occult rock goes, this is fairly middle of the road material and this is the kind of music that will easily go in one ear and straight back out the other. If these guys are around in another five years time and are producing music of a higher calibre then perhaps the next review will be much more favourable, but in the mean time that looks fairly unlikely.
(5/10 Angela Davey)
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