Artist: Satans Blade
Country: Canada
Label: Defiled Altar
Formats: Demo Tape
Year: 2025
In times when we have become accustomed and spoiled, consciously or not, to the convenience of having all music at our fingertips and receiving our promos digitally, it is nice to receive a demo tape in the mail again, completely unexpectedly. Unasked for, unannounced, but accompanied by a handwritten letter, flyers, and stickers, this first demo tape from Satans Blade landed on my doorstep this week. The letter stated that this Canadian band was driven by a desire to bring “total necro Black/Doom”, entirely in the tradition of Asaradel, Samael, Black Crucifixion, Impurity and Xantotol. My curiosity could not be piqued any further…
With a strong sense of hypnotic, repetitive riffing it is for sure that Satans Blade falls into the doomy territories of Black Metal. But while real doomsters might find this a bridge too far, it is fairer to state that ‘Satanic Sacrifice’ is closest to Beherit’s most slow and gloomy tracks. But, this anonymous entity hasn’t been lying that they’ve also taken inspiration from old Impurity, Black Crucifixion and Asaradel. That’s where the “total necro Black/Doom”-sound comes in.
This 5-track demo certainly isn’t easy listening stuff for the masses. The slower tempo definitely prevents Satans Blade to become your next Black Metal boyband, but its grainy guitar sound and the harsh recording values don’t contribute to that either. Yet, when the duo slows even further down and go for those spacey vibes, they do add some surprising creativity and versatility to the mix that gives them a bit of an own identity as well.
Regardless whether you approach this from a doomy Beherit/Reverend Bizarre/Tyrannic-sort of angle or from a more occult point of view that fits those ancient Brazilian bands, Satans Blade certainly have something to offer in terms of uniqueness. Something that you will not run into on a daily basis, but that seemingly keeps smouldering under the surface of superficial and plastic Black Metal.
Available through Defiled Altar on hand-numbered cassette tapes with a xeroxed cover in either blue or green paper.
