Life Sentence

While the NWOBHM is cited as either the earliest or one of the earliest incarnations of what came to define heavy metal as a distinct entity unto itself, it is too often assumed that the bands associated with the scene followed a completely unified sound, or that they completely cut ties with their rock roots immediately. Indeed, the early 80s was defined by a very diverse crowd that moved either very gradually from the 70s rock scene as with Tygers Of Pan Tang, or more rapidly as in the case of Venom. In the grand scheme of things, Satan presents a rather interesting middle ground that could largely be seen as flirting with the speed/thrash sound being explored in the early days of Slayer and Metallica, but sticking slightly closer to the rocking character of a number of mainline acts hailing from Britain at the time.

After numerous incarnations under differing names and a lengthy studio hiatus that left most of the 90s and 2000s absent of any continued output, these mad Britons have put out what can be best qualified as the logical successor to "Suspended Sentence". Perhaps it is no accident that "Life Sentence" bears a very similar title, because it literally sounds like it could have come directly out of the mid to late 80s. The riff set largely conforms to the olden style of archaic, semi-rock driven riffs played in minor keys and just a hair too fast for Black Sabbath and a tiny bit too ugly for Judas Priest, but still keeping a melodic character in line with both forerunners. The production itself largely resembles an 80s approach with reverb-heavy vocal tracking and light, crunchy guitars that hit hard, but lack the overt loudness and obnoxiousness of many modern bands.

There are two areas where a rather peculiar duality of elaboration of restraint permeate this entire album, namely the overall musicianship of all instrumentalists in congress, and the vocal assault of Brian Ross (aka the front man who made "Court In The Act" a certified masterpiece). Far from being a mechanical affair in revisiting the old arena rock approach with a nastier edge, this album actually rivals the most complex output heard out of Iron Maiden, often mirroring the free flowing jazzy character of Clive Burr's sound on the first two albums of said band. In fact, the closing song "Another Universe" is all but a more complex homage to Maiden's quirky early ballad "Strange World". By contrast, Brian Ross actually plays it a bit safe, largely resorting to a husky upper-mid range croon and only occasionally breaks out the banshee wails for dramatic effect.

But ultimately, the greatest charm of this album, as was the case with their 80s output, is the underlying simplicity of the whole thing, When listening to these songs, in spite of all the activity in the guitars and the frequent shifts in tempo, this is a band of 5 musicians playing as though in a live venue. There are no gimmicks to riveting speeders like "Time To Die", "Siege Mentality" or "Testimony", just a catchy melody and a lot of good old fashioned dual guitar mayhem, presented free of any modern studio tweaking or atmospheric devices. These songs would most likely sound exactly the same in a live setting, minus the absence of crowd noise and perhaps a slightly different diffusion of sound depending on the acoustics of the venue, but this is basically the kind of album that was commonplace circa 1983 but is now hard to come by save a handful of revivalist acts who take the throwback niche to its logical conclusion.

It could be argued that while there is an appeal to a younger generation that might not be familiar with what metal sounded like pre-Metallica, Satan is playing to their own generation. Every element of this album screams retro like a man in his early 50s toting a members only jacket. This is tailor made for fans who ate up "Court In The Act" and "Suspended Sentence" during their respective releases and have been craving more for the past 2 decades. Perhaps they were playing it safe by sticking to what they know, but given the poor track record of reunited NWOBHM bands trying to modernize, one can hardly blame them.