Denial Of God - The Horrors Of Satan Review

(Originally written for the Metal Archives)

Denial Of God, my first and maybe my favorite black metal band finally released it's first full lenght album called "The Horrors Of Satan" in 2006. I've waited for years to listen to their first LP and I have to say, that the quality of their music is always evolving . What we heared on the previous albums is a musical growth, the band always makes their music more intresting, complex and atmospheric, a good thing for every band who wants to separate themselves from the rest.

Like always, this new DoG release has tons of tremolo picked guitar riffs and fast blast beats, it has beautiful melodies, acoustic parts and keyboard sections. Most of the tracks tend to start with an acoustic intro and with a spooky whisper overlayed and I have to say that this technique gets overused, but still, it remains interesting and doesen't get boring. Songwriting was not a problem on this album for the guitarist "Azter", the riffs are fitting very well on the songs. The songs are long and diverse and they also have very atmospheric or almost thrashy parts sometimes. They tend to use two guitars, one playing a low rhythm, tremolo picked and one playing very high leads or solos that are mainly played on the B string of the 6th string of the standard tuned guitar Azter uses.

A cool thing that can be heared on this album is the bass that is not very present on the most black metal releases, but on "The Horrors Of Satan", "The Unknown" DoG bassist is using a distortion pedal sometimes and made some intresting interludes and maybe creepier than with a normal, clean, bass sound. The bass is almost playing the same thing the rhythm guitar is playing, but thats not a problem 'cause that's what the bass is "designed" to do on a black metal album.

Ustumallagams' voice is diversed on this album. He uses for example low growls, harsh growling, moans and so on but also whispers on some intros to create an interesting atmosphere. (listen to: The Witch- Now A Restless Spirit). Despite the diversity of the vocals, it's easy to figure out the lyrics. Covered topics include witches and lycantrophy, but also satanism and other demonic stuff. Otherwise the dynamics aren’t bad with pace changes occurring fairly frequently. The album also has some easily memorable choruses that will definetly stay in your head for days. (for example: Cycle of the Wolf)

Overall, the album is a good work of danish black metal band Denial Of God, recommended to every one of us who likes melodic parts in black metal songs and also for people who want to start listening to black metal and don't like raw bands like Gorgoroth or Emperor, yet. Just find the track "The Curse of the Witch" or "The Book of Oiufael" on youtube and let the horror of satan begin.

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