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Satan's Host > Metal from Hell > Reviews > Xeogred
Satan's Host - Metal from Hell

Harry Conklin - 85%

Xeogred, October 2nd, 2007

Ah, Metal from Hell. The album that's become pretty infamous for its atrocious mixing and extremely inconsistent production. Half the time you can't even tell where the instruments have gone, while special effects seemingly appear out of nowhere. One things for certain however, this is one dark and demonic venture. The distorted sounds and twisted instruments create this odd and evil atmosphere that works exceptionally well. If we're going to call this one power metal, its in a lost void of its own.

Satan's Host was constructed by none other than Harry Conklin himself, after Jag Panzer apparently fell through the cracks for awhile after their classic release Ample Destruction and a few demos. Conklin doesn't seem to allow anything to hold him or the band back here and their lyrics easily represent that. Unlike hundreds of bands out there that put on a mask to do their show, only to hide their true beliefs and to leave it all behind once its over, Satan's Host is without a question extremely believable and convincing.

Despite the flaws and the constant sound/mixing changes between the tracks, there's still a great deal of memorable riffs and whatnot here. The guitar is usually heavily distorted, but sometimes tends to come out like nothing but a huge wall of sound. When its in the clear, the riffwork is very dynamic with constant changes and at times is even rather complex with a lot of thrash influences. Unfortunately the leads are lost in the midst of everything more than anything else, with Souls in Exile as a more noticeable exception. When the songs are in slower states the bass stands out quite a bit and is actually easy to hear. Its always there and thicken's this evil smoke, but never really tramples over the other instruments outside of the impressive intro's. The bass actually opens up more than a handful of the tracks here. Drums are pretty explosive and downright fast. Other than that, they are usually middle-of-the-road here in terms of quality and technicality, just like all the instruments. With the incredibly odd mixing and inconsistency, it somehow works and doesn't ruin the album.

But if there were a single reason to hear this album out, it would be for Harry Conklin's vocals alone. I'd go as far as to make the claim that these are perhaps some of the most diverse and craziest vocals ever recorded in metal history. Even if you thought his commanding and rather flawless performance on Ample Destruction could never be surpassed, think again. He makes this hellish album more convincing than anyone else ever could have. This kind of class and performance is hardly matched. His true range is revealed and just when you thought he could not go any higher or lower, he does. With songs like In the Veil I find myself in a complete lost awe, speechless as to how much energy and effort is put into his singing. Its unbelievable such a leap could be made from Ample Destruction and compared to even Titan Force's releases with Conklin, if the vocals on those albums were not already good enough, but he makes it happen and with these three bands I think its clearly displayed he was and forever will be a true Legend within heavy metal.

Those looking for something truly demonic and evil that doesn't find itself in the death metal realm or anything should check this album out. Overall I'd say the album deserves an 85 or so, but if I were grading Conklin's vocals alone I'd wish it would be possible to give ratings above 100.