Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Satanic Bloodspraying: At the Mercy of Satan (2012)

Best Name Ever

Can you possibly think of a better name than Satanic Bloodspraying? The truth is, with all the various raw black metal albums vying for our attention, that was the thing that made them stick out. It’s 99% of the reason I decided to listen to At the Mercy of Satan. But I’m glad I did.

The style of music is exactly what you’d expect from a South American band with a name like Satanic Bloodspraying, i.e., raw, ultra-aggressive and over-the-top black/thrash/ear-rape. But what is most obvious upon first listen is that they didn’t record it in the typical lo-fi style. Refreshingly, they let the filth of the music speak for itself instead of trying to artificially “improve” on it. That means you can actually hear the distorted bass! Score one for this Bolivian debut.


But that’s not where it ends. They’ve actually written songs. A mid-paced militaristic march (“March the Dead”) and a vaguely industrial-sounding rhythm (“Satanic Skullfuck”) are just two of the places where they decided there was more to drums than just blast beats, and the record has plenty of hardcore drumming in its DNA as well. That’s practically a revelation for South American brutality. The songs have actual hooks, rasped or screeched like a lunatic, and they throw in some Warrior-style grunts as well.

It’s like they took all the uncompromising nature of South American black metal, and decided to inject a bit more musicality and variety. The Animal Pervertor and The Connoisieur of Death crafted something sort of like Watain, if Watain came from Bolivia instead of Sweden.

The Verdict: 4.5 out of 5 stars



Buy At the Mercy Of Satan

No comments:

Post a Comment