Quite why I am not familiar with this prolific Italian band is puzzling to say the least as I decided to check their discography before giving this a listen and was impressed with the bands black thrash nihilism plus their logo is awesome too. A quick peruse of the said discography shows a band that initially had its bullet belts alight with the debut release period of the 80s from the Teutonic terrorists of the time; namely Kreator, Destruction and Sodom in case you’re wondering who the hell I’m talking about. However during the slow evolution through six EPs and three full lengths their sound has incorporated a more deathly element that for their fourth album has been realised though not completely.
I found this release difficult to get into as whilst the riffs pack a thrash heavy punch the sound is like hundreds of other bands playing this style and I would have preferred the band to stay with the head smashing black thrash in their earlier career. After an intro the album bulldozes in with “Sighs From The Depths” which has tenets of more modern thrash acts like Skeletonwitch and Goatwhore but with a softer less jagged production that their music really needs. Unafraid to blast “The Black Death” announces itself unceremoniously with a caustic blast and decent riff after a short intro sequence. The song transforms into a melodic death metal tune with plenty of guitar hooks that are cemented into the mix and a copious amount of double kick too.
The spasmodic blast insertions in “Our Lady Of Darkness” do show that the band has kept their thrash beginnings somewhat but diluted for a far more modern approach that continues with “Ripping Evil” and is straight up death metal with violent blasting and vocals akin to death metal. Much of this release passed me by in mundane indifference which isn’t to say this is a bad release far from it as the guys can obviously write vicious metal songs as on “Schizoid” which has some crazed blast drumming in it. Following this is “Necromancer” which has a great guitar hook that is just noticeably different on the album if you’re paying attention as the tune dips quickly into a more mid paced death metal chugger but has a damn fine riff break and beat that is extremely catchy.
I can’t see how diehards of the band that have followed Satanika through their releases will enjoy this as it marks a change in direction that was started on the previous release “Nightmare” and whilst bands must evolve this release is unrecognisable from the earlier material but is a worthy slab of melodic death thrash tunes.
(7/10 Martin Harris)
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