When I first heard of Satan's Host back in 2000 I was a bit skeptical since they had been a Power Metal band in the late 80's and they just reformed under a new musical style, something that does not compute quite well. However after listening to their 2000 album "Satan's Host - Archidoxes of Evil" I knew the band was for real and their genre switch was a good move.
"Power Purity Perfection... 999" comes little over one year after their "The Great American Scapegoat 666" and it shows an even bigger improvement on the band's musical sound. The band's style embraces everything from Black, Death, Trash and even Heavy Metal creating a very interesting mesh of elements that any metalhead would enjoy.
The band's sound has gotten a bit more melodic and they clearly showcase their technical abilities for the whole duration of the album. The song transitions are very well written and the band changes from one style to another in a matter of notes. The guitar work is more than stellar courtesy of Patrick Evil, featuring anything from Trash riffs, to Heavy Metal clean guitars and solos, to faster paces Black Metal aural assaults.
The drumming is very compact and diverse enough to be able to keep up with the changes of the guitar and bass guitar tracks. The bass guitar track is one of my favorites of this year since it's very clear throughout the whole album and it's mixed high enough that you can enjoy it clearly allowing you to see how it changes in the course of the songs. Mr. Elixir, the band's vocalist, does a pretty solid job in this album, being very vesatile in switching from Death Metal like vocals to the Black Metal screams.
In general, I really enjoyed Satan's Host latest release, since it features a wide variety of genres all mashed together to create a very fine Metal album. If you are a true Metal fan and like most sub-genres the same way, you will find in this album a very interesting addition to your collection.
- Dark Emperor
Rating 84/100
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