ALBUM REVIEW: Earth Infernal – Satan
It’s not uncommon for a band to have several personnel changes throughout their career, especially when you’ve been going as long as SATAN, one of the bigger names from the burgeoning New Wave of British Heavy Metal at the turn of the 80s. However, the outfit from Newcastle have also changed their name not once but twice over the years: for a brief spell they were BLIND FURY and then changed to PARIAH, releasing four of their current nine albums under those names. Reverting to their original moniker for a one-off show in 2004 and then from their full return in 2011 onwards, the band are now about to release their sixth record under the SATAN banner – and tenth overall – on April 1st via Metal Blade, the poignantly titled Earth Infernal.
Although not a concept record as such, a lot of the album centres around the theme of climate change, how the world’s occupation with politics and the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed the issue of the planet growing ever hotter to take a back seat and be somewhat forgotten. The main two tracks that explicitly discuss this are Twelve Infernal Lords and closing track Earth We Bequeath. The former is much in line with the band’s penchant for the proto thrash/speed metal they electrified audiences with at the beginning of their careers, albeit a notch or two slower than previous, something that naturally comes with age. The latter is firmly in NWOBHM territory, opening with MAIDEN-esque guitars and developing into a chugging behemoth that marks an excellent finale.
Elsewhere, Mercury’s Shadow is a galloping, three-minute instrumental, From Second Sight is a driving, classic metal number that would put some of SAXON‘s best songs to shame, and The Blood Ran Deep has a curious progressive edge with a time signature that echoes images of RUSH‘s seminal track YYZ.
Despite this, the positive reactions that came with 2018’s Cruel Magic and the pandemic allowing the band to carefully craft new material, this is the first record since SATAN‘s return that feels like a bit of a misstep. As mentioned above, it could be down to the band not being spring chickens anymore, but there are moments here that are a bit of a slog to get through due to their ploddy tempo and tendency to drift along. Burning Portrait is one such example, its middle section meandering along as if the band didn’t quite know how the song should progress, so kept it going far longer than it should have done. Poison Elegy is another culprit; although the solos in the middle are expertly delivered by the long-standing partnership of Steve Ramsey and Russ Tippins, there just isn’t enough going on around it to maintain an interest from the listener, although that could be down to a somewhat raw production job.
There’s no question that SATAN are a legendary band and will go down as one; it’s also very feasible that they will bounce back from Earth Infernal when they come to writing a new record down the line. For now though, this is an album that – somewhat ironically given the title and main themes – blows hot and cold throughout, although there’s enough for it to warrant at least one playthrough.
Rating: 6/10
Earth Infernal is set for release on April 1st via Metal Blade Records.
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