SATAN – Songs In Crimson

vote
7.5

• Band:
  SATAN
• Duration: 00:44:22
• Available from: 09/13/2024
• Label:

• Metal Blade Records

Streaming not yet available

Sublime, let's not add anything else! “Songs In Crimson”, the seventh score written by Satan is certainly one of the most successful among those published in their career, and we are not exaggerating in saying that it is placed immediately after the famous “Court In The Act” released more than forty years ago. And so, with the new school session approaching, Brian Ross and his companions bring us back to the classroom to give us yet another lesson: a superb NWOBHM handout where Angel Witch cross instruments with Mercyful Fate, setting up a rare, punctual, melodious and devilish commodity.
We have mentioned two historical groups, even epochal if we think of King Diamond's band: points of reference that must not however affect the fundamental merits of the Newcastle quintet, an absolute symbol of coherence and stability of intent (with the exception of the second album “Suspended Sentence”, the line-up has in fact remained the same as in the early days). Russ Tippins' riffs are something identifiable, recognizable, precisely because of their meticulous precision and contemporary unpredictability. One of the symbolic elements of the 'Satan sound', in fact, which makes it unique compared to groups, is that of distancing the search for perfection in favor of a creativity that is not always so easy to approach, especially when listening immediately.
And that's what happened with the present “Songs In Crimson”. The initial triplet, from the decisive and extravagant “Frantic Zero” to the darker “Whore Of Babylon”, passing through the airy “Era (The Day Will Come)”, echoes in our ears like a wild creature, without a leash, creating dissonances, leaving us almost annoyed in front of that lack of linearity between the guitar mockery of the Tippins/Ramsey duo and the voice of Ross himself, author once again of a more than convincing performance. That's why, when “Sacramental Rites” starts, the feeling of having landed on something more welcoming and catchy, appears more evident, almost a sort of liberation.
In reality, it is only one of the segments of the sound labyrinth built ad hoc by the British group, which forces us, precisely because of its serpentine structure, to start again from the beginning, giving us the possibility to listen again, entering more in tune with the creativity expressed by Tippins and his companions.
A first segment of the English ball of yarn that instead fully manifests itself in the second part of the album, in which songs like “Martyrdom”, “Turn the Tide” and “Captives” perfectly represent (this time we take it for granted) Satan's desire to always try a new path, to try, promoting the work of the human hand over the technological one.
A concentrate of New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, confirming a band, not so successful but that, after the 2011 reunion, has found, in contrast to what was written above, the famous clue to the matter.