Artist: Salacious Gods
Country: The Netherlands
Label: WolfKult Religion
Formats: Demo Tape
Year: 2025
After an extended period without releases, Salacious Gods has turned the tide completely. There was the long-awaited full-length ‘Oaelevluuk’ and the band returned to the stages in 2023. Last year the band celebrated its 30-year anniversary with the live compilation ‘A Crestomathy of Blasphemous Supremacy’, and there is new material on the horizon in the shape of the new mini album ‘Jacht In Twaeduuster’ to be released in the summer of 2025. But before that new release, Wolfkult Religion takes us back to where it all began, to the band’s very first release, 1998’s demo ‘The Slumbering Silence’.
In 1994, the year of formation of Salacious Gods, the Dutch Black Metal scene was rather modest. Veterans of the local scene such as Bestial Summoning, Countess, Funeral Winds and Sammath were then already active, but in terms of popularity, clearly the Dutch were still very much with Death Metal on their mind and Black Metal of Dutch origin was still a niche genre. Salacious Gods could have followed the path of the first wave sound of Countess or the relentless onslaught of Funeral Winds and Sammath. Instead, they found their inspiration in a different sound, the rising symphonic Black Metal movement that was pioneered by the likes of Obtained Enslavement, Dimmu Borgir and Limbonic Art.
Salacious Gods wasn’t exactly the only Dutch band to follow in these footsteps, as the Rotterdam based Liar of Golgotha had already released the melodic and symphonic offerings ‘Dancing Through the Palace of the Ungodly Beauty’ and ‘Vendetta’. But upon revisiting ‘The Slumbering Silence’, it’s obvious that Salacious Gods took a slightly different route. For one, Salacious Gods have always been centered around fast and melodic Black Metal, and this basis is obvious on this demo already. Furthermore, compared to their Dutch peers, they took the symphonic elements a little bit further. Completely fitting in the international Black Metal soundscape of 1998, the overt keyboards dominate the four songs found on the demo.
On this very first Salacious Gods release, the guitar sound is still rather raw, the drums snappy, and the keyboards operate at the front of the mix. As all four songs on the demo also appeared on the debut ‘Askengris’, it’s an interesting observation to hear that the compositions of the songs remained nearly entirely intact as the band went on to record the album. Instead, the most obvious differences are found in the balance of the sound. The sound on this demo is altogether sharper and more volatile, and thereby less organic than ‘Askengris’. This reveals some of the rough compositional edges and transitions that are laid bare by focus on the upfront keyboards. But this is exactly what makes the demo charming: the sincere first published footsteps of a band finding their way into the Dutch Black Metal scene.
Obviously the band has changed a lot over the past 30 years and the keyboards are literally a thing of the past. Salacious Gods has grown into its own over time and delivered their best album to date with 2023’s ‘Oaelevluuk’. But one cannot deny that a crude framework of the riffs on the latest recordings can already be traced back to their very first demo. In a genre built on nostalgia, demo releases like ‘The Slumbering Silence’ are a unique view back in history. Back into a time where a lot of things were different, but if you listen carefully enough, a lot sound oh so familiar as well.
