Review: Satan Destroyer – Utter Kaos and the Eclipsed Moon
Review: Satan Destroyer – Utter Kaos and the Eclipsed Moon
Satan Destroyer is a name that should be familiar to anyone who keeps an ear to the underground when it comes to unblack metal. Most often associated with the bestial black metal style, Satan Destroyer has been pounding out some seriously aggressive sounds since the band’s first demo, Into the Shadows of the Abyss, back in 2017. Lord Enochiam, the band’s chief driving force and core member, is no stranger to the underground either; he’s also in Casm and Behead Lucifer, and formerly played with underground acts like Blodfält and Mirha.
Satan Destroyer’s newest album has been on my radar for some time now, and it’s about time I got to it. I have to admit, Utter Chaos and the Eclipsed Moon has really taken me by surprise, and in a good way.
If you’ve been privy to the band’s sound on previous albums, you might find yourself in for a surprise with this one. Though Satan Destroyer has always blended its war/bestial black style with a very raw production style, this one emphasizes raw over brutal. The overall sound is icy and skeletal, the guitars like sheets of freezing rain, the vocals indecipherable howls that sound more like chaotic noise than actual words. In short, this is fantastic stuff.
The first album with an actual drummer, Pathos of Elgibbor/Symphony of Heaven/Virtue of Decay fame brings new life to the band; rather than hyperactive blasting, we get frantic yet mid-paced drumming that allows the rest of the instruments to attempt to breathe in all the frigid atmosphere. Guitars on here are as brittle as can be, caustic and sharp – something one doesn’t normally associate with a bestial/war style of black metal (which usually leans more towards a death metal heaviness). In fact, I’d say that outside of the deep roared vocals and driven song pacing, this album has little in common with war/bestial black metal at all. Instead, Utter Chaos and the Eclipsed Moon opts for an incredibly traditional-sounding black metal atmosphere and tone here, blending the lacerating guitar tones of Horna, Verdelger and early Mayhem with the aggression of late ’90’s Gorgoroth.
“Gorgoroth Pt. II” is a highlight track, seeming like a distorted mutation of Mayhem’s classic “Freezing Moon,” twisting familiar riffs and patterns of that song into new life; that said, the entire album is solid from beginning to end. Only lyrically do I find it all a bit par-for-the-course in a way. Most of the content here focuses on the themes found in Revelation: the Last Judgment, the fate of Satan and his angels, spiritual war, and end times events. It’s not the themes that leave me feeling a bit ho-hum, obviously, but the way it’s all presented. Sometimes I just really want to see an artist engage with the themes and content of the Scriptures rather than simply paraphrase them, if that makes sense.
My one quibble aside, Utter Chaos and the Eclipsed Moon is a fantastic release that breathes a bit of new life into Satan Destroyer. Its emphasis on raw black metal over the pulverizing violence of war metal allows the instruments to breathe a little, even if it ends up like one breathing ice-cold January night air and having their lungs freeze. Definitely recommended for fans of raw black metal with some weight to the vocals.
For Fans Of: Goatscorge, Mayhem (early), Verdelger, Gorgoroth (mid-era), Frozen Burial, Skald in Veum, Horna
About Author
