Review Summary: Thankfully, the second half of Pre-dating god hits as hard as the first.
To be perfectly honest, I’m still not sure why Satan’s Host decided to split their latest album into two parts. The style doesn’t change too much between the discs and the runtime is just under eighty minutes when you put them together. It could be argued that it keeps the listener from getting too overwhelmed by the sheer amount of material. Thankfully the quality is high and the second half of Pre-dating god hits as hard as the first.
With that in mind, it isn’t too surprising to see this album be cut from the same cloth as its counterpart. The guitars and drums still operate at a near constant blast, the vocals jump between the growls and high pitched wails, and the song structures aim to be elaborate and ominous. It could be argued that this half is slightly more melodic with “Fanning the Flames of Hell” daring you to match Conklin’s cries during the choruses and “Descending In The Shadow of Osiris” takes the balladry a step further than “After The End” did on part 1.
The hooks also manage to still be pretty memorable. The chorus on “As The Dead They Sleep” comes dangerously close to grating on the nerves but the building verses keep it strong and the appropriately serpentine grooves on “Lady ‘n The Snake” provide a nice mid-tempo contrast before returning to faster grounds in the second half. There are times when certain songs feel a bit too long or venture too far from their original ideas, but the tangents are rarely unwelcome.
With it having a couple more songs to work with, pre-dating god part 1 may be the better half but the strong songs on part 2 make it impossible to have a truly satisfying experience without it. It is refreshing to see a band that’s been around as long as Satan’s Host still releasing consistent material at such a fast rate. One hopes they won’t burn themselves out too soon but one could still imagine them going out gloriously in such a scenario.
Highlights:
“Fanning The Flames of Hell”
“Soul Wrent”
“Lady n' The Snake"
