Album review: SATAN’S WRATH – Galloping Blasphemy

Metal Blade – Out Now.

Classic, old-school, vintage, retro or whatever-else-you-want-to-call-it Metal has always been massively supported in Greece. I mean, this is the country whose fans covered all expenses themselves just to see bands like Omen and Manilla Road perform on their soil and perhaps the only place where bands like Warlord are forced to add a second date due to popular demand.

Based on all that, I was not surprised to see two Greek lads, namely Tas Danazoglou (bass/drums/vocals) and Stamos K (guitars), forming a band which, according to Metal Blade’s hilarious press release, is capable of “awaking the legions of Satan” with its music! What was left for me to establish was whether said “awakening” was really worth it.

The best way to describe “Galloping Blasphemy” is as a ‘celebration of all things 80s Metal’ – the time when, as successfully mentioned in the album’s press release, “Death, Black and Thrash genres were all considered one and the same”. The riffs on offer are simple and predominantly mid tempo, the vocals are harsh and the guitar themes range from powerful/meaty (Slayer, Possessed) to heavy/groovy (Iron Maiden/Black Sabbath) to flamboyant (Megadeth style).

There is not a single idea present in this album that you will not have heard before, providing that you are of a certain age, but, at the same time, the end result can be pretty enjoyable if straight forward classic-sounding Metal is what gets you going.

Following a short atmospheric intro, the mid-tempo riff of “Leonard Rising – Night Of The Whip” offers a mixture of Slayeric riffs and Mustaine-like solos, followed by the flamboyant leads and galloping tunes of the Possessed-sounding opus “Between Belial and Satan”. No song is simpler in its structure than “One Thousand Goats” – a song that paves the way for the far more complex and technically challenging piece “Hail Tritone, Hail Lucifer” – the stand-out track of this album.

During its two and a half minutes, the same-titled “Galloping Blasphemy” is an instrumental tribute to early 80s Maiden and much different from the equally short but far more aggressive “Death Possessed”. The similarities with Possessed are so blatant in “Death To Life” that, out of principle, I feel I cannot allow myself to be seduced by it, while both “Slaves Of The Inverted Cross” and “Satan’s Wrath” are both decent but far from outstanding tunes – the latter based on a guitar melody almost identical to Black Sabbath’s “Evil Woman”.

So, how to evaluate “Galloping Blashpemy” and what is the most appropriate rating for these nine compositions? As far as entertainment value is concerned, this is an enjoyable old-school Metal album that those of us who were brought up on a strict diet of Slayer’s “Show No Mercy”, Maiden’s “Killers” and Possessed’s “Seven Churches” would find to be quite agreeable.

At the same time, however, I would expect any young band to try a bit harder to make their classic influences sound less obvious and to add its own personal touch to things and with that in mind…

John Stefanis

Rating: ***1/2 (3.5/5.0)

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Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024

ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)