Time Signature For the love of metal...

Genre: satanic power/thrash/trad. metal

It's time to celebrate the dark lords of satanic heavy metal! To mark their 25th anniversary, satanic metallers Satan's Host will unleash the aptly titled "CELEBRATION: For the Love of Satan" upon the world in ten days' time, and, boy are we in for a treat.

The album contains two original tunes and a bunch of older tunes which the band have re-recorded and buffed up with a crisp and well-defined modern sound. The overall style falls somewhere between traditional heavy metal and US power-thrash, but there are also elements from doom metal to be found, as well as more modern things such as blastbeats (which figure especially in the newer material).

Virtually every song is extremely strong in terms of riffage, and the way that Satan's Host have shined up the older tunes definitely has not done any damage, as it makes them sound more brutal and up-to-date. There are plenty of thrash and power metal tempos, which go well together with the more traditionally oriented riffs and the metal-as-hell powerful vocals which are akin to the singing styles associated with Symphony X and Firewind.

The lyrics are wonderfully Satan-praising, but a bit cheesy at times, and the many mentions of "Satan, Lucifer, Belial" might end up becoming tiresome to some listeners. Still, you gotta love the lyrics for being larger than life and hotter than hell - and they, of course, suit the imagery associated with the band.

Fans of traditional metal and power-thrash who are not afraid of a bit of satanism should check out this album, which, I think, definitely does Satan's Host's career and body of work justice.