“We are the truth defenders.”
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne’s Satan make their return with new album Songs in Crimson. The Geordie quintet beautifully blend the simplicity of NWOBHM with the tritone dissonance of early Sabbath that gives it an unnerving, almost black metal air. That said, like all NWOBHM bands, virtuosity is as present as simplicity, with Satan boasting some serious guitar work in the form of duo Tippins and Ramsey. This duo should frankly be as revered by metalheads as the likes of contemporaries Downing and Tipton for their unique style that goes a long way toward defining Satan sonically, and sets the band apart from merely being another NWOBHMband.
However, as the follow-up to 2022’s Earth Infernal, Songs in Crimson is frankly a large step backwards. The songwriting largely feels less inspired though it remains passable. The band don’t feel as well-rehearsed this time around, but again, not so much so that it ruins the songs. What detracts the most from the album, by far, is its mixing and mastering. Considering the band returned these duties once again to seasoned producer Dario Mollo, a veteran of the trade since 1999, you would not expect Songs in Crimson’s production to turn out sounding the way it has. The songs are all compressed to within an inch of their lives, robbed of the beautiful dynamic range heard on prior Satan releases that Mollo was responsible for and often introducing audible distortion. Plain and simple, Songs in Crimson has been given the Death Magnetic treatment.
On top of the often hard-to-listen-to mastering, the mixing is quite messy. As a result, the songs often feel very disjointed to listen to and unprofessional; they do not feel as polished and glued-together, as it were, as the material on Satan’s past releases.
Various mix elements are often either too loud or not where they should sit in the mix. For example, the vocals on “Turn the Tide” are mixed so loudly that the song becomes really quite difficult to listen to, particularly on headphones where the listener lives in constant, looming fear of the threat of sibilance. Other examples of this issue include on “Sacramental Rites”, where the guitar solo at three minutes is sort of just sat atop the rest of the mix. What is most strange about this particular example is how there is another solo, immediately after that, with fits into the mix perfectly. Of course, I understand that these both are the parts of a song that you would expect to stand out at the very front, but it is the extent to which (or, indeed, the way in which) they are put out the front that creates an issue. Think of it as the difference between watching your favourite singer live, compared to watching your favourite singer live with their forehead pressed up against yours the whole time.
In the case of “Frantic Zero”, at first, it marks an undeniably awesome way to open the album – vast, soaring power chords, with a fast lead riff making the cherry on top. However, it is when the song truly starts up into the meat of things that things start to break down because of the mastering. The drums are the most notable victim, where the kicks and hi-hats in particular sound crushed. The mix itself also sounds really quite narrow, but it is without a doubt that the very worst thing about this song is the horrific tone heard on the guitar solo at 1:25. Assaulting the listener’s ears with a searing digital distortion, the solo is again placed right on top of the whole mix and, regardless of whether you are expecting it or not, makes you jump every time you play the song.
Aside from all the poor mixes, what of the songs that lay beneath them? Overall, not great. For some reason, the three best songs are shoved down the back end of Songs in Crimson, namely “Captives”, “Curse in Disguise”, and “Deadly Crimson”, the latter of the three being the final song on the album. Given this, “Deadly Crimson” is a decent little track to end the album on, though I felt the ending of the song itself was not the grand resolution that you would expect at the end of any album. “Curse in Disguise” has this great chunky riff, and the lead melody that shows up throughout the song makes me think of “Hocus Pocus” by Focus, but crossed with the DNA of Fatal Portrait era King Diamond.
“Truth Bullet” is a strange little song. It is a good example of what I mean when I say Satan feel less inspired this time around, with the first twenty seconds of the song sounding like every 80’s hard rock band’s demo. That said, the band do opt to go against convention just a little throughout the song, using a shaker to give the song a bit of a low-key feel in certain passages. The big tag-line of the song makes me giggle a little every time it is sung, making me think of the opening of a Christian anime about morals – Ross proclaims “we are the truth defenders!”.
Overall, the songwriting on Songs in Crimson isn’t exactly bad, but nor is it up to par with what Satan have established themselves capable of on their previous releases – the quality and ingenious of songs such as “Death Knell for a King”, “From Second Sight”, and “Into the Mouth of Eternity” that seamlessly blend the tonality of Sabbath with the sensibilities of Priest whilst remaining wholly original has sadly fallen away from the band on this album, making Songs in Crimson very forgettable indeed.
In conclusion, Satan deliver a weaker album than their previous efforts on Songs in Crimson. The band’s songwriting isn’t their best, but also isn’t bad. What lets the album down most of all is the low quality production, which finds the songs overly compressed, in some cases to the point of audible distortion. It’s also mixed very inconsistently, making it hard to listen to tracks where elements such as the vocals are placed far too prominently in the mix. The mixes themselves often do not feel as coherent and ‘glued-together’ as on previous releases, giving the songs a disconnected, unpolished, and unprofessional feel. Satan have certainly taken a step backwards with Songs in Crimson, but their songwriting, which towards the back of the album is occasionally quite good, and on other occasions isn’t exactly bad, is definitely made worse by the low quality of production.
5/10
Songs in Crimson drops on Friday 13th September and can be pre-ordered here.