Court in the Act

To save you a read, I adore this record and think it's a worthwhile listen for any metal fan.

A debut album may be a band's most important. There's a good chance nobody has ever heard of you, so a great first impression is essential if you want to stick around. For many metal bands, a debut record often showcases a band's talents and qualities, but in an unpolished, untamed form. With succeeding records, the band will refine their sound and finally hit the jackpot (often with the third one). Satan is not one of those bands.

Bursting out of the picture frame is Court In The Act, a strong contender for 1983's best metal release, a mighty feat when you look at its peers. On this record, Satan have all the kinks worked out and deliver an incredibly efficient and powerful sound that is immediately iconic. The music here is intricate but not inaccessible, and catchy while still being intelligent. The band somehow makes dirty riffing and golden guitar harmonies work in perfect unison, never interrupting each other. The album also never lets up; even for slower tracks, they hardly break the pace or interrupt the mood. The album begins with the mystical synth intro, "Into The Fire" before exploding into the excellent opener, "Trial By Fire" which immediately delivers one beastly riff after the next. It then jumps into the very headbangable "Blades of Steel" whose riffs alternate between serpentine and boulder-mighty. And it just keeps going. It never gets tiresome, because the band have so much on their palette to offer. Everything you hear is certifiably Satan.

Getting into specifics, let's start with this band's secret weapon: the lyrics. Something I rather like about Satan is that they have an ideology of sorts. I've seen an interview with Brian Ross and Russ Tippins in which Brian describes the name as sort of an umbrella term for all kinds of malice, all the evil that humans do to each other. With that, all of their songs here and in the rest of their discography are more or less mini-stories; small tales describing a tragedy or hardship. While "Blades of Steel" may sound like a generic NWOBHM rocker title, the track is a rather tasteful description of a viking pillage. The tracks "No Turning Back" "Break Free" and "Hunt You Down" are all first person perspectives on putting yourself and charge and taking nothing from nobody, which is a nice bit of flavor on a rather gloomy release. The members also stand strong as a team, but all get their moments to shine. I've seen some people describe Brian Ross as staying in the mid-range, but he's actually singing rather high. (For reference, the first "YEAAAH! in Hallowed Be Thy Name? He's usually not far below that!) Instead, he actually has an incredibly dark tenor. His voice is definitely in the treble range, but it's so friggin' foggy that it sounds lower. Because of this, he can keep the energy up while maintaining a dark atmosphere. (I don't mean to be correcting others here, just putting my two cents out on his unique tone.) He also delivers some great shrieks, but he never sings lines in this tone, they're usually just for yeahs and ahhs.

Steve Ramsey and Russ Tippins are a wicked twin guitar team. Ramsey's solos tend to be rather melodic and rolling, while Tippins sports the more erratic ones. Not much to say, other than they stand firm against the best twin guitar attacks out there.

Let's isolate "Break Free" here. While all of these tracks are great examples of this band's talents, this one may be my favorite. The song opens with this big ol' fill and wash out, before kicking into a wicked proto-power metal riff. The verse is a wonderful maze of sound where Ross describes your break from confinement. It's noteworthy how the band is delivering such triumphant lyrics at such a rapid pace, but it still sounds so... melancholic. Almost as if it's all a dream. The band cycles through the same main riff/verse/chorus cycle twice, before slipping into a bridge. The energy dies down a little, and then it all explodes again with the solos! At this point, the band has given us... eight riffs? In three minutes? In 1983?! Blasphemy! Anyhow, the solos are perfect. Tippins gives us an awesome tapping lead, before joining Ramsey for the coolest guitar harmony you ever did hear. It then gets a second wind for two more awesome solos and a final harmonized lick, which leads into the majestic final chorus(es)! Which adds extra vocal harmonies for more excitement! We hear the main riff once more before... the big fill that made an awesome beginning doubles as an awesome ending?! The trick that Satan have figured out is somehow managing to write songs flagrantly but also conservatively. They add whole new riffs where it's needed, and recycle parts where it counts. None of their riffs sound like the band were especially proud or fond of them, but they knew their value and where precisely to use them.

I also want to give a special mention to "Dark Side of Innocence". It's not even a minute long, but it's really cool! I can't think of another band at the time that could pull off a track like this. It's an acoustic bit, but it doesn't just feel like a pseudo-prog intro for the closer. It's got a really nice baroque folk sound to it, reminding me of the Over The Garden Wall soundtrack, of all things. It definitely shows a band that doesn't need distortion to write songs. It doesn't even sound like an electric section they switched to acoustic. It's just delightful.

The only reason this doesn't get a solid 100% is because the production feels just a little too muddy on some days. The band probably didn't have the budget to get it any better, but sometimes it feels like if the guitars had a little more treble, or if the vocals were a little higher in the mix, everything would be perfect.