I guess one couldn’t mention the word ‘hardcore’ (as in the style) without getting his own ass served for barbecue by self-proclaimed Satanists, but that’s the one thing that came to mind upon the first vocal lines exposed in “The Regicide” by vocalist Zetekh. Then again, by now all lines have been blurred and hardcore bands embracing obscure philosophies are no rare occurrence these days. And so on the other hand, when Zetekh screams roughly his lyrics about consecrations, sacrifices and feasts, proverbial as these may be, he does so with a human approach that could have fit in a very rough and brawl-ready Brooklyn HC band, not with the phantasmagoric intentions of most other black metal vocalists.

Like what you like, dismiss what’s not your cup of tea, Zetekh is a vocalist to be respected. In tracks like “Sacrifice of the faces, Unbroken” he seems to take on different personalities. He stops screaming and speaks up, just loud enough to be heard and ill-mannered enough to be intimidating and alternates that with this almost rapid barking delivery. The music on his back, moves oddly, at sick broken tempos and with smeared, earth-shaking riffs. It’s odd and quite personal and with an identity all of its own.

And yet, Saturnian Mist is clearly a black metal proposition. The band members have a black metal past and a black metal present in other bands as well, Gnostikoi Ha-Shaitan is being issued on a black metal label and musically, this is clearly where it belongs. No shit. One more difference between Saturnian Mist and the rest of black metal bands; this is heavy. Very heavy and very dense. Perhaps the hardcore influence is a little subtle, as musically, there seems to be none, but there is this very blatant frenetic tempo, this propelling energy that could have taken off after some of these Finns heard Discharge.

As dense as the music is, it is just sounds, and the booklet that accompanies Gnostikoi Ha-Shaitan is equally dense and thick, and loaded with not only lyrics but confessions, rants or journals. Maybe, all three, painting a clear picture of the kind of misanthropes that are part of Saturnian Mist.

Official Site

Written by Ignacio Brown

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