Artist: Sathanas
Country: USA
Label: Moribund Records
Formats: LP / CD
Year: 2024
With their 1988 released ‘Ripping Evil’-demo, Sathanas positioned themselves as one of the very first Extreme Metal bands that effectively blended those early elements of both Death- and Black Metal, cementing a certain cult status. Although the band released a few records in the 90’s, it took them until the 00’s before Sathanas gained a bit more attention – especially around the Pulverized Records and Iron Pegasus-released ‘Entering The Diabolic Trinity’-album. Yet, overall it is fair to conclude the band was never really able to cash in on their early underground fame. Still, with ‘Into The Nocturne’ the band arrived at their twelfth full-length instalment, so fame and glory or not, the band stubbornly kept doing what they always did…
What possibly didn’t help matters is that the band almost released each of their records on another label as well as briefly changing their name to Bathym in the early 90’s, all of this preventing them to build a steady base. But whatever the reason for that constant label hopping, the band never seemed to have been discouraged. Not only evidenced by their pig-headedness in releasing new music, but mostly because their musical formula remarkably has remained steady on their nearly four-decade musical journey.
Obviously, comparing ‘Ripping Evil’ to this latest offering doesn’t make too much sense, but if you drill it all down to the essential elements, Sathanas is still very much the same band. Those who followed the band over the years will have noticed that over the past few years there is a bit more of a Thrashy feel to the music that came at the expense of the earlier dark Death Metal flavour of the music. If you’d listen to songs like ‘There Will Be Demons’ or the great and catchy ‘Raise The Chalice’ you’ll definitely hear that Sathanas anno now has much more in common with contemporary Black/Thrash Metal.
Although always having stayed true to their musical fundamentals, it is clear that Sathanas has been through a few subtle changes throughout their long career And, in a way, this makes sense. Not only because there are only a few bands like Nunslaughter who literally never moved a single inch, but mostly because Sathanas’ earliest steps were already hard to exactly label within one sub-genre of Extreme Metal. And in the end, labelling music is merely there to help understand what you are dealing with, not to limit the creative process of a band.
In that regard, ‘Into The Nocturne’ is a Sathanas-record through and through. In fact, this new album is the strongest of the last few years. I wouldn’t exactly say I lost interest in the band, but not all of the band’s releases got me on the edge of my seat. On the other hand, if you read the rant above, you know that Sathanas never really disappoints, its just that one album is a bit more convincing than the other. Still, Sathanas is Sathanas and represents solid Extreme Metal.
