During the year or so since I've started writing music reviews on a regular basis I've managed to avoid reviewing a bad album. I guess the time has come now -  and one reason for this is that as the new kid on the block here on Metal Temple I don't, as of yet, have a say in what I review. Nobody likes to say bad things about other people's work, especially when it comes to underground bands, for whom music is passion. But since I've made it my business to critique music I have to give everyone a fair shake, whether that makes someone happy or not. PROVOCATOR is a side project of Hellscream a man who is pretty active in the Slovenian black metal scene. For this project he recruited Lord Astaroth from the Italian band KURGAALL, who handles vocal duties, all instruments are played by Hellscream himself. "Satan, Chaos, Blood and Terror" is the second LP released by PROVOCATOR since it's formation in 2007.

"General Commander Baphomet" starts with a generic evil sounding metal riff, which is actually a better ones on this albums (the riffs here could perhaps be counted on the fingers two hands). In the middle of the track is a passage with a different riff and after that the song gets back to the first riff. Here the problem with PROVOCATOR becomes clear: the songwriting is so flat and dull that you can skip to different parts of the song and they will sound almost exactly the same. On "Anno Vulgaris MDCXXX" there actually only one riff and one flat drum pattern throughout the song, the only way any kind of variety is offered here is by means of the vocals, which alter between growls and shrieks. Oh, and there is a solo. On the title song "Satan, Chaos, Blood and Terror" - is it only me who thinks the titles on this album are funny? - we don't even hear a proper riff: during the whole song the guitar is droning over a synth bass line. (If that can be called a bass line - it's basically just a pitch modulated synth noise.) Over this sonic mess Lord Astaroth is shrieking "Satanic Terror!".

I think that by now you understand my issue with this albums. The music here is so simplistic that it is bordering on naive. I have nothing against raw black metal. I get the appeal of primitive black metal records with buzzsaw guitars, deranged vocal delivery and grim, necro atmosphere. But compare "Satan, Chaos, Blood and Terror" to "A Blaze in the Northern Sky" or even "Deathcrush" and it will get immediately clear that PROVOCATOR'S music isn't raw but just simplistic and dull. The songs want to be grim and brutal but sometimes they come across as almost whacky, for example the choruses that are just one phrase repeated over and over ("Iron Horned Baphomed!" - try to guess the song title) or random ad libs like "Destruction! Destruction!" or "Common!". Another issue I have with "Satan, Chaos, Blood and Terror" is the length: with extreme metal keeping things short is a good thing, but if the length of a full album is the same length as a regular EP, something is not quite right. Although unfortunately in a case of an album like this one is inclined to think that the short length is actually a blessing in disguise.

Hellscream might be a competent guitarist and his drumming doesn't suck but his songwriting approach here just doesn't work, and the same goes for the vocalist Lord Astaroth's performance, which i just not on par with his output so far. Their main bands are actually quite good, so I advise everyone to stay away from this release and check out BLEEDING FIST and KURGAALL instead.