Growing up on 80s black/death metal bands like Possessed, Celtic Frost, Bathory, early Sodom Kreator, and Destruction, I am a sucker for anything with evil demonic names and artwork, hahaha. My imagination gets the best of me, and sometimes I find a goodie or two. It’s how I discovered Ghost when their album first became available for review to press, and Satan’s Wrath (another band on Metal Blade).

Demonic Slaughter though are from the same school of Mayhem and Darkthrone, and current masters Watain, playing more mid-tempo black metal with the traditional old school riffing the genre is known for, rough fuzzy production, minus blast beats and (for the most part) orchestrations. ‘Pit Of Coffins’ sends the listener to the grave for this intro, ‘Mystic Rites’ and ‘Psalm Of The Mist’ continue to paint a picture of Satanism and darkness. Title track chugs along with the throbbing bass, but most notably ‘Death’s Creek’ closes out the album with nine minutes of atmospheric sounds of a storm coming, piano and the cult singin “ahhhhh”. This one surely is intended for the black mass and Lucifer’s arrival. Actually, would like to hear more of this type of thing within several of the actual songs. Good idea for next album?