Artist: Nosferatu
Country: Brazil
Label: Hammer Of Damnation
Formats: Demo Tape
Year: 2025
The legendary figure of Nosferatu has been an inspiration for metal bands since the very start of the genre, it didn’t take long before bands started picking Nosferatu as the name of their band. By now there are literally countless of both active and disbanded bands that go or went under that particular name. This specific band comes from Brazil, But even within those national borders, you have a handful of Nosferatu’s to choose from. This one, however, has just released their latest demo, ‘Satana In Fabula’.
And while Nosferatu might count as one of the least original band names around, these guys’ Black Metal isn’t exactly run-of-the-mill. Calling it original is a bit too far fetched perhaps, but at least, this sort of medieval sounding Black Metal is not something you come across every day, which in itself already makes ‘Satana In Fabula’ worth a listen.
In just over twenty minutes, this demo tape, released by Hammer Of Damnation, takes you back to bygone days when Black Metal was often embellished with the clashing of swords, eerie samples, epic and Heavy Metal-driven riffs and surprising vocals that didn’t shy away from the use of equally epic clean singing. Although the individual band members all seem to have some experience in other bands from the past and present, as far as I can tell, there are no pure Heavy Metal acts among them. Yet that is exactly what you assume when listening to this demo; the excellent songwriting and the use of beautiful, open chords fit seamlessly with what you would normally expect from an Epic Heavy Metal band. Just listen to ‘Adversário Eterno’, for example, which has the grandeur of a band like Ironsword or Solstice, including the occasionally unstable vocals. However, this makes the experience of ‘Satana In Fabula’ all the more memorable.
Those memorable Pagan-like melodies and the loose way of applying vocals do add much to the overall feeling of those popular (and often forgotten) bands from the mid-90s who went on building on the very cornerstones of bands like Isengard, Einherjer or even Thyrfing. The rawness that’s applied around the guitar tone and the harsher vocal parts, still makes this a conscientiously Black Metal affair, but it is undeniable that it’s diversity is something that you have to be able to adjust to or have a genuine knack for. Either way, the versatility of ‘Satana In Fabula’ definitely makes this one hell of a demo, well-executed and thoroughly enjoyable.
