Demo 2020

We all know not to judge a book by its cover (I hope), but it's fairly common that a band with a weird name more often than not tends to lack the musicality to keep a listener enterained beyond the gimmick.

♄♄♄♄♄ (Pronounced Saturnists so I'm going to refer to them as Saturnists from here on in text) is most definitely NOT one of those gimmick-only bands and you ABSOLUTELY should give this demo a listen, at the very least. Saturnists might be yet another one-demo-only band as of writing, but seeing the reception this demo is getting on Bandcamp as well as other platforms where they may be found, I think it's clear that Saturnists are onto something great here.

The songwriting and instrumentation are both very well-done, flowing seamlessly between melodic segments with distant tremolo-picked guitars that put the "post" in their "post-metal" tag, and heavier sludgier riffs that introduce a chaotic vibe overall to the two tracks here. Ymir is mostly an instrumentally-focused song that leans more into the post-black influence while having a sludgy tone spread over it. No segment of the song draws itself out for too long, and overall it is an attention-keeper, but it also produces one of my only complaints on this demo, that being the vocalist doesn't seem to be too dynamic, often-times hovering somewhere in a three-way spectrum between blackened rasps, death growls and DSBM-like shrieks. His performance sounds interesting but he doesn't really go too far in one direction on Ymir, often leaving a bit to be desired.

However, surprisingly, the vocalist really brings his true ability (or at least more of it) out on the more sludge-leaning song Pandora, which as a post-black fan is actually my favorite between the two, as it features a more energetic performance that shows that Saturnists can include variation in their style, as well as performing higher-tempo blends of melody and heaviness that really gets my hopes up for what this band has to offer in the future. While it's only about half the length of Ymir and a third of the length of this demo, Pandora seals the deal in convincing me that Saturnists certainly have the musical ability to keep a listener entertained.

A final note I should include is on the mixing/production, which I will admit is pretty good for a demo. Nothing too spectacular, but everything can be heard fairly clearly and the cymbals don't sound like they're being playing through a Skype call so I can't complain. I do wish the band had included one more song or two, but if that's my only other complaint besides the vocal performance on Ymir not being as dynamic as on Pandora, then that must be saying something about the quality of the demo overall in a positive way.

Overall this is a very good start. I recommend it to people who like sludgy influences in their black metal, or post-black fans who are looking for something a bit heavier. Saturnists are a band to keep an eye on for certain and and I wish them all luck.