First off, I need to heed a word of warning to all those youngsters and Modern Metal lovers out there. If you haven't heard of the Heavy Metal band SATAN before, you must have been living in another dimension. These guys have been around since the dawn of times (The NWOBHM era of 1979), and have always delighted us with some very good music throughout the years. Especially live, where they have never been able to disappoint. Not so much in the studio, which resulted them in becoming PARIAH and even BLIND FURY. The albums released under those names are alright, but missing the real SATAN vibe. In 2004 a live album saw the light of day. "Live In The Act" was very good, and resulted in the band coming out of Hell to play for us mere mortals again.

From 2013 they have been releasing studio albums again, and this time around they do have the impact the band deserves. Concerning "Earth Infernal", this is only their sixth full length album, and again it is a corker. But of course it's not perfect. The drums sound as if they were recorded in some basement, making them rather dull instead of dynamic. Not only that, the total sound is a bit of rickety as well. It seems like the equalizer was void of the treble knob, as everything sounds as if it's a copy of a copy on a cassette tape (if you remember what that is, of course). I therefore would like to propose to them that there are people on this earth called producers, whose job it is to try and make your recordings sound as good as possible. Maybe they should employ one for a change.

Musically "Earth Infernal" might not harbour anything new for SATAN and their fans, the songs are without exception bloody marvellous. At first it all sounds a bit too busy, too disorganised, but the further you get in the number of listening sessions, the better it gets. And then it all comes together and you can honestly say that SATAN have been able to surprise you again with some very good tunes that make you want to listen to them time and time again. Yes, even with the poor production there is no hesitation to play "Earth Infernal" more often. That is the perfect sign of a diamond of a record, one that grows on you.