To be perfectly honest, I’m still not sure why Satan’s Host
decided to split their latest album into two parts. The style doesn’t change
too much between the discs and the runtime is just under eighty minutes when
you put them together. It could be argued that it keeps the listener from
getting too overwhelmed by the sheer amount of material. Thankfully the quality
is high and the second half of Pre-dating god hits as hard as the first.
With that in mind, it isn’t too surprising to see this album
be cut from the same cloth as its counterpart. The guitars and drums still
operate at a near constant blast, the vocals jump between the growls and high
pitched wails, and the song structures aim to be elaborate and ominous. It
could be argued that this half is slightly more melodic with “Fanning the
Flames of Hell” daring you to match Conklin’s cries during the choruses and
“Descending In The Shadow of Osiris” takes the balladry a step further than
“After The End” did on part 1.
The hooks also manage to still be pretty memorable. The
chorus on “As The Dead They Sleep” comes dangerously close to grating on the
nerves but the building verses keep it strong and the appropriately serpentine
grooves on “Lady ‘n The Snake” provide a nice mid-tempo contrast before
returning to faster grounds in the second half. There are times when certain
songs feel a bit too long or venture too far from their original ideas, but the
tangents are rarely unwelcome.
With it having a couple more songs to work with, Pre-dating
god Part 1 may be the better half but the strong songs on Part 2 make it
impossible to have a truly satisfying experience without it. It is refreshing
to see a band that’s been around as long as Satan’s Host still releasing consistent
material at such a fast rate. One hopes they won’t burn themselves out too soon
but one could still imagine them going out gloriously in such a scenario.
Highlights:
“Fanning The Flames of Hell”
“Soul Wrent”
“Lady n' The Snake"
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