Ah Finland...a country known for it's beautiful lakes, the solace of it's snowy picturesque countryside...it's cute Moomin people...Santa Clause...oh, and it fucking loves heavy metal! Yes the Finn's love a bit of noise...so much so in fact that they officially have the worlds largest amount of metal bands per capita according to population density, with nearly an average of over 53 bands per 1000 people! I don't know whether to be scared or impressed! They just can't get enough of it! (I fucking love Finland)...One of the many, many bands to choose from and a perfect example of their cultural contrast, is KING SATAN. Hailing from Tampere, this dark and devilish EDM inspired metal monster has recently released their brand new album "King Fucking Satan"...affirming or arrogant? Let's find out...
We open up with "Dance With The Devil" and it act's as a wonderfully themed introduction; an invitation of the most demonic order courtesy of vocalist King Aleister Satan to come join his debauched troop of followers for an intense, electronic industrial metal fusion...it's equal parts evil and enjoyable in it's extremities, the aggressiveness of his course, growled vocals with some genuinely catchy techno-beats fueling the track, it's a positive start. "As Above So Below" begins rather regimented, imagine an almost EDM fueled military march, but, it soon comes to life as an intense trance-nation flurry of riffs and synths, attacking the senses from numerous angles...there are hints of early WILLIAM CONTROL meets HATEBREED and it's weirdly enjoyable...
"Enter Black Fire" is a really dark EDM number and to be perfectly honest when it initially get's going I can't help but think of Mortal Kombat...musically going all Liu Kang on your ass (fuck BPM, measure this in KTTFPM; kicks to the face per minute)...but jokes aside, the video for this track is deeply disturbing, scenes of war, destruction and neo-nazi imagery coupled with random naked burlesque performers, it's thematically very alluring, gravitating to the idea of submitting to the darkest reaches of your mind; very MIDNIGHT CONFIGURATION, an album highlight. "Sex Magick" is again, disturbing for other reasons...keyboardist Kate Boss supplies vocals here and very often she sounds almost, childlike, there's a high-pitched quirk to her voice, there's a dirty, faux-innocence to her delivery and coupled with the tracks title it's concerning as she squeaks of sex and death...
There is a mid-album lull with tracks like "Satanized (Praise Hail Satan)" and "Of Infernal, Eternal & Spiritual War" sounding more sluggish, slowly plodding along and are relatively generic, before we pick things back up again with "Destroy The World Or How To Combine Love And Misanthropy"...despite it's annoyingly long title, it does house a bleak, MARILYN MANSON inspired piano-lead anti-ballad...the drawl of his vocal, the sentiment in the tracks tone; it's painfully beautiful and contains some really accessible pop-hooks, this is a brilliant track, before we finish up on "Kali Yuga Algorithm"...inspired by the Hindu belief in the fourth stage of humanity, basically we are on our last legs and we have nurtured our own demise; powerful stuff. King Satan may be new demons on the block but they aren't short of confidence...with a real bullet point of an album, they've well and truly established themselves within a generally inner-circle genre...having already played alongside the likes of PAIN and VELVET ACID CHRIST they've had a strong start and I can't imagine them going back underground anytime soon...sorry Liz...long live the King! [7]
We open up with "Dance With The Devil" and it act's as a wonderfully themed introduction; an invitation of the most demonic order courtesy of vocalist King Aleister Satan to come join his debauched troop of followers for an intense, electronic industrial metal fusion...it's equal parts evil and enjoyable in it's extremities, the aggressiveness of his course, growled vocals with some genuinely catchy techno-beats fueling the track, it's a positive start. "As Above So Below" begins rather regimented, imagine an almost EDM fueled military march, but, it soon comes to life as an intense trance-nation flurry of riffs and synths, attacking the senses from numerous angles...there are hints of early WILLIAM CONTROL meets HATEBREED and it's weirdly enjoyable...
"Enter Black Fire" is a really dark EDM number and to be perfectly honest when it initially get's going I can't help but think of Mortal Kombat...musically going all Liu Kang on your ass (fuck BPM, measure this in KTTFPM; kicks to the face per minute)...but jokes aside, the video for this track is deeply disturbing, scenes of war, destruction and neo-nazi imagery coupled with random naked burlesque performers, it's thematically very alluring, gravitating to the idea of submitting to the darkest reaches of your mind; very MIDNIGHT CONFIGURATION, an album highlight. "Sex Magick" is again, disturbing for other reasons...keyboardist Kate Boss supplies vocals here and very often she sounds almost, childlike, there's a high-pitched quirk to her voice, there's a dirty, faux-innocence to her delivery and coupled with the tracks title it's concerning as she squeaks of sex and death...
There is a mid-album lull with tracks like "Satanized (Praise Hail Satan)" and "Of Infernal, Eternal & Spiritual War" sounding more sluggish, slowly plodding along and are relatively generic, before we pick things back up again with "Destroy The World Or How To Combine Love And Misanthropy"...despite it's annoyingly long title, it does house a bleak, MARILYN MANSON inspired piano-lead anti-ballad...the drawl of his vocal, the sentiment in the tracks tone; it's painfully beautiful and contains some really accessible pop-hooks, this is a brilliant track, before we finish up on "Kali Yuga Algorithm"...inspired by the Hindu belief in the fourth stage of humanity, basically we are on our last legs and we have nurtured our own demise; powerful stuff. King Satan may be new demons on the block but they aren't short of confidence...with a real bullet point of an album, they've well and truly established themselves within a generally inner-circle genre...having already played alongside the likes of PAIN and VELVET ACID CHRIST they've had a strong start and I can't imagine them going back underground anytime soon...sorry Liz...long live the King! [7]
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