Satan's Host: Metal from Hell

I first heard Satan's Host a few years back.  At that time, they were more of a black metal band with occasional thrash metal riffs.  Their singer had the fairly typical black metal style rasp.  I actually liked them quite a bit.  I bought two of their albums right away.  Their next release was decidedly more melodic and thrashier, yet retaining a lot of the black metal aspects that caught my attention.  It was my favorite yet.  I was aware that Satan's Host had once been a power metal band, but had not heard anything from that period at that point.  Then came word that the band was reuniting with Jag Panzer vocalist Harry "The Tyrant" Conklin.  That album blew me away and was the Album of the Year on this site.

I recently made the decision to try to check out the band's debut album, a highly-regarded, but often overlooked gem from 1986.  The band went on hiatus soon after and did not re-emerge until the late 1990's.  By that time, Conklin was firmly entrenched with Jag Panzer and Satan's Host took on the black metal style they had when I first heard them.

This is an incredible album.  It is a shame that so few people know about it.  The music is fast with some very aggressive riffing.  It is significantly more intense than a lot of the power metal bands of the time period.  There is also some hints of tremolo riffing here and there.  Patrick Evil has always been a vastly underrated guitarist and that is even evident this early in his career.  The songs are all catchy as hell, pun intended.  The big star of this album is Conklin, who went by the pseudonym Leviathan Thisiren on this release.  His howling and soaring vocals complement the music perfectly.  

This is an album begging for a reissue with better production.  The sound is definitely a 1980's production job, so it is a little thin in places.  It is not bad for the time, but the guitar riffs could stand to be beefed up a little bit.

This is a gem from the 1980's.  It is great that Satan's Host has decided to revisit this sound.