#Satanika Horde of Disgust

Band: Satanika
Title: Horde of Disgust
Label: Osmose Productions
Release date: 24 February 2023
Country: Italy
Format reviewed: High-quality Digital Recording

One thing is clear about Satanika: these guys truly worship the early years of Black/Thrash Metal, their sound will clearly take you there. With aggressive riffs, pulverizing drums (c’mon, listen to that snare!), and monstrous gnarled vocals… Yeah, they caught me by surprise (and I must have been living under a rock since 2010, ‘cause this one is the band’s fifth full-length album!)

Let’s see with a bit more detail what this Italian duo has to offer us. In “Horde of Disgust”, as if the instrumental intro “Not of this Earth” didn’t give hints enough, will drag you to some of the darkest nightmares. With “The Void”, you’ll start headbanging violently like a maniac, with that rampant guitar playing and pummeling fast drums, and wait for the vocals! One of the most disgusting voices (in a good sense, of course, if you understand what I mean) I’ve listened to lately. Drums are insane, fast, relentless… great work by Arne Østensen Gandrud (Snuff X) from Massemord, as the session drummer in this album.

“Cosmic Funeral” and “Horde of Disgust” are total headbangers, in the last mentioned song, Stephan Gebédi (Thanatos) does some additional vocals. So siiiick sounding! In “The Fog”, here it comes again mr. Snuff X with his devastating drums, like a steamroller, with no mercy at all. Not all the tracks nor all the time the tempo is so fast, this makes the album more interesting in my opinion. But yeah, “Tentacles of Horror” is another sick piece of velocity and obscure riffs along with murky vocals… Very well done.

Let’s put it this way: if you are not vibing with the sound of Mr. Barren guitars & bass and forcing your throat trying to mimic Cris Pervertor vocals (at least doing the choruses), don’t know which album will do that for you. In my opinion, these 37 minutes go by in a hurry, but this is a perfect length for a release of this kind because it’s intense and with no fillers, and you can listen to it again as many times as you wish. I know you’ll do that. (By the way, don’t try to imitate those vocals or you’ll end up with damaged vocal cords… ah, a friend of mine told me this, ahem…)

Special mention to the dreadful artwork by Mark Riddick; that style was a bit familiar to me when I first saw “Horde of Disgust” cover art, and after two minutes of searching (thank you Metal Archives!), I found out: Riddick also did the artwork for the latest Lik albums and EP, and the logo of that band. And a huge number of other album covers, this man is a great illustrator in the underground Death Metal scene. Oh yes, the mind-blowing and sick details when drawing those zombie-skeletons… Fantastic art, totally fitting the music. And if you were wondering about it, yes, he is the man behind Fetid Zombie.

If I’m listening to this album on repeat and can’t be still while doing that, it means it’s great stuff. At least for me. I give it 9/10 Sílvia

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9/10 Epic Storm
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