Satan’s Fall are a heavy metal band from Finland formed in 2015 releasing their debut album ‘Final Day’ in 2020, and sophomore album ‘Destination Destruction’ in 2023.
Featuring eight brand new songs and two covers – more on those later – Satan’s Fall returns after a couple of line-up changes to reaffirm their emergence onto the worldwide metal stage. An emergence that has seen, or rather heard, the band deliver fast-paced, traditional heavy metal with an immense melodious intent – the new album also brings touches of hard rock to the fore. ‘Destination Destruction’ runs for forty-four head bang-able minutes, exploding into life with the blistering opener ‘Lead The Way’, firmly planting both feet on the monitor, adopting the iconic metal stance! The band are at full tilt here, stunning listeners with an overwhelming surge of energy, rocking heads back and forth at an extremely high rate of knots! Quickly moving on, ‘Destination Destruction’ stretches its legs even more, Satan’s Fall bringing to the fore a touch of power metal pace for the galloping ‘Garden Of Fire’ – a red hot scorching slice of immensely infectious metal that everyone everywhere is gonna thoroughly enjoy.
What an absolutely incredible opening double salvo, the intensity level rising right off the fucking chart, Satan’s Fall marching on with the more mid-tempo, but nonetheless energetic ‘Swines For Slaughter’, accelerating to top speed across the chorus break. A chorus break that’s so catchy and sings a long-able, it must be a dead cert for inclusion in the band’s live set! What a travesty it’d be if it wasn’t – ‘Monster’s Ball’ floating in on the back of a short mellow passage, building the tension until wham bam thank you Satan’s Fall as a mighty anthemic foot stomp unfolds. Hitting harder than everything heard so far, ‘Monster’s Ball’ proves you don’t need blistering pace and jackhammer drumming to deliver a skull-crushing, bone-breaking, neck-snapping heaviness! And the glorious sound of the legendary NWOBHM evolution rises high in the air as ‘Destination Destruction’ delivers a strong old-school flavour in the shape of ‘Afterglow’, perfectly echoing a forty-year-old sound that pioneering British bands Iron Maiden and Angel Witch forged during the early eighties – the Finnish five-piece paying homage to the greatest era for heavy metal. An era that I was fortunate enough to have grown up in – and would love to re-visit as soon as time travel is invented! But hey – why wait ’til then! I listen to eighties heavy metal every fucking day – hardly a day goes by without a little ‘Maiden or ‘Priest on my stereo!
And as the album progresses, the band’s immense melodious intent shines brighter than ever, ‘No Gods, No Masters’ picking up the baton and running on. And on. Relentlessly running on, delivering head bang-able heavy metal off the top shelf. Satan’s Fall began their sophomore album with the pedal pressed firmly to the metal, and haven’t lifted it since! Out and out speed resurfaces once more, the band powering on with the crushing cacophony ‘Kill The Machine’, banging heads harder than ever before! ‘Destination Destruction’ is breathless, the band unforgiving in their approach to heavy metal, tightly grabbing the listener’s attention from the off and never letting go! ‘Dark Star’ cruises in and stomps on heavily, striding tall and very proud, the band at the most majestic they’ve been all album long – the mid-tempo swagger similar in style to British stalwarts Saxon.
And now to the two cover songs, the first ‘Es Wird Viel Passieren’ – the “Marien-Hof song” from the same-named daily German TV soap. As guitarist and founding member Tomi Maenpaa comments, “We’ve been listening to that song for ages, whenever we’re partying or hanging out at the rehearsal room. In the nineties, the German TV series was also broadcast in Finland. That’s why we always hurried home after school, so we could listen to the theme music”. The second song is a storming cover of ‘Go Go Power Rangers’ – the theme song to “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers”, the American superhero television series that premiered in 1993. The band execute these covers very well – arranging them both so they fit in with the album’s overall sound and feel. And I must admit, their cover of ‘Go Go Power Rangers’ should be used by Hollywood directors for any future “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” films.
Overall, a barnstorming array of all-out, full-on and in-your-face heavy metal, thoroughly infectious and immensely head-bangable.
TRACKLIST
Lead The Way
Garden Of Fire
Swines For Slaughter
Monster’s Ball
Afterglow
No Gods, No Masters
Kill The Machine
Dark Star
Es Wird Viel Passieren (Marien-Hof song)
Go Go Power Rangers (cover)
Satan’s Fall: Facebook
Release Year: 2023
Label: Steamhammer / SPV
Category: Album
Country: Finland
Reviewed by Iron Mathew for Frenzy Fire and Metal-Roos.
