lista zespołów Black Metal Iugulatus Satanic Pride

The thing is, with Iugulatus, I was actually expecting a Black Metal album. I had searched the Web for info related to the band and found various, more or less positive reviews about their debut entitled Call of the Horned God. Somehow I was expecting Black Metal with a rather Swedish vibe a la Marduk but upon hearing the first notes of Satanic Pride, I knew I was aiming at the wrong direction. Maybe the debut had an entirely different direction or some fellow reviewers have no clue what they write about.

I won't try to bullshit you into making you think I’ve known the band for ages because it would be a lie. Discovering the Polish band with their sophomore release I would rather think of it as a Death Metal act with hints of Black Metal here and there. This mostly pertains to the production of Satanic Pride which is a lot cleaner than I anticipated. The musicianship also displays more tendencies towards Death Metal and Thrash Metal as well. Even the vocals seem to verge more on the “guttural” side than on harsh cold a la Black Metal ones, though this wouldn't be enough to label the band Death Metal.

All the structures, most of the riffing and the general feel of the album will scream Death Metal. You could be entitled to think rather of old Vader actually when listening to Satanic Pride mostly because of those remnants of Thrash Metal gimmicks. Bits of Pestilence/Asphyx here and there too.

Tracks like Chaos Invocation or the opening eponymous Satanic Pride are fine pieces of music which will actually get you started nicely. With a duration of about 5 minutes, they’re neither too short nor too long and are complex enough to keep your attention level. This unfortunately does not last as the third track is over 10 minutes, then another one at 6 minutes and the closing chapter at almost 15 minutes! Is that bad? Well, sure, there are some bands that can pull out the feat of having long AND interesting/captivating tracks. The problem here with Iugulatus is that they drag on riffs and parts that feel unnecessary and which, though repetition shall be used for building momentum, keep you at one point of the song longing for the next thing to happen. And since nothing remarkable seems to happen in that span, you soon lose interest in the music as it just plays somewhere in the background of your brain.

So this feels, as a whole, as a part successful part failed attempt at Blackened Death Metal. Considering it neither has the brutality of some bands of the genre (for instance Angelcorpse or Teitanblood) nor the originality of others (Necros Christos), Satanic Pride is of moderate interest.