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Satan's Host - By The Hands Of The Devil review



Reviewer:
7.5

31 users:
8.32
Band: Satan's Host
Album: By The Hands Of The Devil
Release date: May 2011


01. By The Hands Of The Devil
02. Shades Of The Unlight
03. Demontia
04. Before The Flame
05. Bleeding Hearts Of The Damned
06. Black Hilted Knife
07. Revival
08. Fallen Angel
09. Inferior Worlds
10. Norwegian Wood [The Beatles cover] [bonus]

Satan's Host began as a respectable blasphemous heavy metal outfit. Then they broke up. Then they reformed, blasted the world away with their Satanic-themed blackened death metal onslaught, then set out to release By The Hands Of The Devil.

Harry Conklin of Jag Panzer fame is back manning the mic, and his piercing clean vocals dominate the album. The instrumentation is typical of a heavy metal album, but Patrick Evil apparently forgot his pick at home and had to use one of Abbath's, and the Evil Hobbit was dreaming of Inferno before the recording process, making for a blatantly black metal influenced heavy metal opus.

And it rocks.

These guys make it obvious how comfortable they are with their instruments, ripping through an hour's worth of energetic magnificence with ease. P. Evil and Conklin don't shy away from letting their audience know they have the chemistry of true metal veterans, as made apparent by their songwriting prowess. Songs ebb and flow without missing a beat, the band in sync from the word go. They don't try to reinvent the wheel. They don't introduce any foreign concepts.

They just kick ass.

Perhaps the best part about this release, sticking with Conklin's vocal abilities, is how far and apart the band members set themselves from Jag Panzer. You know with Christian Älvestam you're going to get, for the most part, a Scar Symmetry clone. While that might please a lot of his fans, Conklin just sticks to what works with this album, for the sake of the band. And that - unfortunately for Panzer fans - includes not sounding like a Jag Panzer clone (although fans of the band will undoubtedly find similarities within each track).

Of course there are drawbacks to an album that mixes the "why so serious" of black metal and the "rock out with your cock out" of heavy metal. The styles obviously clash, even with Conklin's voice doing everything in its power to unite them. The Satanic lyrics are more cheesy than anything Glen Benton's managed to conjure up thus far in his career, and the repetition leaves you wondering why they made an entire album of songs that sound so similar.

That being said, By The Hands Of The Devil is an easy recommendation for fans of Mercyful Fate/ King Diamond, mixing classic heavy metal and polished black metal about as good as you'd expect anybody to be able to.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 7
Production: 8





Written on 30.04.2011 by I'm total pro; that's what I'm here for.


Comments

Comments: 9   Visited by: 185 users
30.04.2011 - 08:19
wormdrink414

Any thoughts on that bonus track?
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30.04.2011 - 13:51
Troy Killjoy
perfunctionist
Written by wormdrink414 on 30.04.2011 at 08:19

Any thoughts on that bonus track?

It didn't stand out from the rest of the album - which isn't saying it was bad, it just fit with the rest of the tracks. I didn't even realize it was a bonus until now.
----
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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30.04.2011 - 22:29
Rating: 8
Charly546

I'm so looking forward to getting this album. I've been listening to the 3 songs released so far over and over a bit too many times.
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01.05.2011 - 04:58
wormdrink414

Written by Troy Killjoy on 30.04.2011 at 13:51

It didn't stand out from the rest of the album - which isn't saying it was bad, it just fit with the rest of the tracks. I didn't even realize it was a bonus until now.


I thought it might be a cover of The Beatles' song. Google says nay! Which is kind of comforting (not a huge Beatles fan though, so I can't put my finger on why).

About to check these guys out, by the way.
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03.05.2011 - 16:04
The Technogoat
The Technogoat
Written by wormdrink414 on 01.05.2011 at 04:58

Written by Troy Killjoy on 30.04.2011 at 13:51

It didn't stand out from the rest of the album - which isn't saying it was bad, it just fit with the rest of the tracks. I didn't even realize it was a bonus until now.


I thought it might be a cover of The Beatles' song. Google says nay! Which is kind of comforting (not a huge Beatles fan though, so I can't put my finger on why).

About to check these guys out, by the way.

It is a cover of The Beatles' song, and it is not particularly good.
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Human, all too fucking human.
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04.05.2011 - 01:55
wormdrink414

Written by The Technogoat on 03.05.2011 at 16:04

It is a cover of The Beatles' song, and it is not particularly good.

Ah. Found it on youtube. Agreed. Wouldn't mind hearing a goregrind version of it though, come to think of it. This version's pretty unimaginative.

But I'm really enjoying what I've heard of the album. The vocals are definitely top-notch.
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06.02.2013 - 01:02
Stabby
Account deleted
I listened to this because I wondered one day what Harry was doing after Jag Panzer and found it. Pretty tasty and very Satany, I love his voice and the rest of the band are crushing.
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21.01.2014 - 10:29
Zap
Guest
Quote:
The instrumentation is typical of a heavy metal album, but Patrick Evil apparently forgot his pick at home and had to use one of Abbath's

Great description
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21.01.2014 - 10:55
Troy Killjoy
perfunctionist
Normally when I'm brought back to an old review because of a comment I usually re-read the review and laugh at how bad it is. This one is surprisingly not completely disrespectful so I guess I had some nice things to say sometimes.
----
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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