Satan's Host

I hinted at a post looking at this somewhat unknown band a couple of weeks ago. Well here it is finally.

Satan's Host is a band out of Colorado that has had a little bit of an unusual career trajectory. The band started out as a power metal band and featured the vocal talents of Harry "The Tyrant" Conklin, most notably of Jag Panzer. They disbanded in the 1980's and within the last ten years or so re-emerged with a new sound, a blackened thrash metal sound with some death metal elements thrown in. The vocals have been done mostly in a black metal raspy style, but occasionally sound like a blackened death metal vocalist, such as Nergal from Behemoth. Strangely, Conklin has very recently been brought back into the fold. They have not released a new album with him, so I am not sure what they will continue to sound like, but I'm looking forward to it.

The driving force behind the band is the impressive guitar work of Pat Evil. The man can absolutely shred, although he does not do so frequently. When he does though, it is extremely impressive. He is also an impressive songwriter and riff master.

The one real issue with the band is their lyrical content and the messages of the albums. I do not personally have a problem with it, but the band is clearly Satanic and utilizes a lot of space on their albums toward preaching their Satanic invocations. Again, not a problem for me, but for others. For that reason, the band will never gain much more than a loyal cult following, which is a shame. When they want to, this band is amazing.

I had a chance to see Satan's Host and Drawn and Quartered in Omaha, but it was on a week night, I had an important hearing the next day, and I lived two hours away. Disappointing. Nebraska simply does not have enough good concerts to afford to miss them, but there must be some law that says all Nebraska concerts must be on weeknights. A bunch of crap.

SATANIC GRIMOIRE-A GREATER BLACK MAGICK
This is the first album I heard from the band, although I bought both it and the next album at the same time. The album starts with a spoken word calling to Satan and then kicks right into the first shredfest, the great "Necromantic Art", with some extremely impressive lead guitar work. Despite this, the album often feels a little sludgy, doomy, and not as fast as the band is capable of being. The band is concentrated more on creating a dark atmosphere, and this goal is accomplished easily, but sometimes, I just want to hear Pat Evil unleashed. Despite this minor flaw, the album remains a truly interesting piece of music. There are plenty of moments where the band rips into an impressive thrash metal riff and speed, such as "Metal from Hell". These are my favorite moments. The bonus tracks are both terrific and should have been part of the album proper.

GREAT AMERICAN SCAPEGOAT-666
Their next album starts off again with a spoken word intro. Very spooky stuff indeed. This album starts off sounding more like a blackened death metal album with tremolo-picked guitar leads and a deeper growl. This album as a whole is a bit more musical than the last album. It is however much closer to blackened death than blackened thrash. The album fits in well with groups like Belphegor, Behemoth, Angelcorpse and the like. Overall that's not a problem though because Pat Evil still lets loose with an abasolutely blazing guitar solo once in awhile, with "7 Strings, Sin" being just a guitar solo.

POWER, PURITY, PERFECTION-999
The newest album by Satan's Host presents the band going back for a thrashier sound once again. The opening track this time features a spine-chilling melodic guitar lead setting up the first song. This album features longer, complete songs with only two interlude tracks. This album features an increased reliance on Pat Evil's guitar wizardry to drive the music, and it is completely successful. This is my favorite of the three albums I have heard by Satan's Host, mainly due to the amazing lead guitar work. The track "Dark Priest 'Lord Ahriman'" in particular features some truly outstanding leads.

As mentioned before, some changes are afoot regarding this band. I have not heard their earlier power metal material, so I am not sure what it sounded like, but it looks like I may have a chance with Conklin back behind the mic.