If you've been looking for upcoming Black Metal albums to try, then look no further! The Dutch Black Metal band SALACIOUS GODS have announced a fourth full-length album titled "Oalevluuk." It will be released via Dutch record label Hammerheart Records on October 6th. For those of you who have not heard of this group, SALACIOUS GODS have been around since 1994. They have also released three albums prior to their anticipated fourth album: "Askengris" in 1999, "Sunnevot" in 2002, and "Piene" in 2005. Among their fanbase, the band is well-known for their lyrical themes of Babylonian mythology and anti-Christianity, which are very familiar in the Black Metal scene. Although the album has not been released to the public yet, I had the pleasure of getting an early listen to it, and I must say I was highly satisfied with what SALACIOUS GODS have put forth.

The first track "Rise, Oh Horned One, Rise!" clocks up to 4 minutes and 40 seconds, with absolutely no unnecessary instrumental fills in between lyrics. Based on the title alone, it seems that this is more of an anti-Christian song, as the only horned one I can think of is the main antagonist of Christianity himself: Satan. The heavily distorted riffs of the guitarist duo Iezelzweard and Njirrebrod were unsurprisingly harsh and shredding but came together very well. The next track and album's sole single "Morbid Revelations in Blood and Semen" starts with a sample of rainfall and a trumpet being blown, before opening with a beastly blast beat from Fjildslach. The audio sample was actually good creativity on the band's part. The music considerably slows down in pace on "Bloedkloete" (especially since it doesn't have any blast beats from the drummer) and also includes an audio sample of rainfall, much like the beginning of the preceding track. I absolutely enjoyed the following track "Devotion," which starts off with melodic guitar riffs not unlike Classic Heavy Metal and a more measured drum rhythm, followed by a eerily moment of peace before transitioning into the harsher Black Metal that the previous tracks had. In fact, "Devotion" was probably my favorite song of the entire album.

The second half of "Oalevluuk" begins with the longest track of the album, "Honor Him." Although it is nearly 10 minutes long, it also does not have any useless fills or an imbalance between the music and lyrics, so more power to SALACIOUS GODS in that field. The last few tracks of the album–including the title track which acts as the closing track as well–were also very enjoyable. However, I felt that overall, the musical style of the band was a bit too repetitive of what they did in the first half of “Oalevluuk.” The frequent blast beats were no surprise, as they are essential to Black Metal, but the riffs could have used a little more creativity. In other words, while the second half of this record was definitely worthwhile, the blasphemous Dutch group fell a bit short towards the end.

Generally speaking, I enjoyed listening to SALACIOUS GODS’s upcoming fourth album. Getting to do so over a month before it even hits the shelves and streaming services made it a little sweeter for me. My only complaints were that despite the overall great production quality, the bass of Swerc was virtually non-existent compared to the rest of the aggressive music, and the track lengths could have been a little more balanced. The songs ranged from clocking to as short as about 4 minutes to as long as nearly 10 minutes. Making most of the tracks somewhere between 5 to 6 minutes would have been more efficient. Complaints aside, as I said, some of you metalheads out there may be looking for new Black Metal albums to get your hands on. In that case, I would recommended “Oalevluuk” by SALACIOUS GODS, so make sure to give a try as soon as it comes out October 6th.