Tuesday 31 July 2012

[ALBUM REVIEW] Sathanas - La Hora de Lucifer

 

Genre - Black/Thrash Metal

1. Angels Forsaken
 
2. La Hora de Lucifer
 
3. Forged In Eternal Fire
 
4. Engraved In The Book Of Death
 
5. Battle Of Bewitchment
 
6. Darkconjurings
 
7. Hammer Of Demons
 
8. Nocturnal Reign
 
9. Blackest Hate

US black/death metal Horde Sathanas have been toiling away in the nether regions of the extreme metal underground for what seems like nigh on forever now. With La Hora de Lucifer they’ve released their eighth album and yet somehow despite being an extremely solid purveyor of this style of music, still remain relatively unknown to most. La Hora de Lucifer is much more thrash oriented than their previous efforts though, they’ve taken their foot off the death pedal and injected a noticeably significant amount more speed this time around. While the formidable Nightrealm Apocalypse was more Possessed, this album is rather more aligned with the likes of Usurper and early Bathory.

Indeed it’s those aforementioned bands, Bathory anyway along with Venom that obviously play a huge part in Sathanas’ sound and rubs off visibly here. “Forged in Eternal Fire” even bears a title suspiciously similar to a certain famous Bathory song, and from the overtly satanic lyrics, Paul’s cutthroat blackened vocals and the thunderous procession of drums and crushing razor sharp riffs there’s certainly something here for any self respecting fan of black/thrash to get their teeth into. Granted, it’s nothing you could ever call groundbreaking and structurally all the songs on La Hora de Lucifer are much the same in their execution, but when it’s delivered with such ferocity and underground conviction like this then I’m not complaining.

Songs like “Battle of Bewitchment” and “Nocturnal Reign” are riff filled and solo strewn sermons of blasphemy and perfect examples of the level of quality that I’ve come to expect of this band by now. At the very least they’re consistent, I mean they’ve been at this game for 24 years now with little to no recognition and still haven’t released one album I would ever consider as sub-par, neither an album that would ever be considered an ‘essential classic’ either and La Hora de Lucifer continues this trend. It’s definitely one for the fans of Desaster, Usurper and the ilk to check out if they haven’t already.

7.5/10

Sounds like  - Deasaster, Usurper, Destruction

Originally written for Metalcrypt


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