Saturnian Mist - Gnostikoi Ha-Shaitan (2011)

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With a very peculiar ear-raping Black Metal sound, Saturnian Mist delivers their debut full-length release titled “Gnostikoi Ha-Shaitan”. The band pummels through eight tracks of putrefied Black Metal that at first will make you want to turn it off, but once you warm up to it, you will find it very refreshing and somewhat different to all other BM releases.

Firing up the riffing machine since the opening track “The Regicide”, the band delivers very crunchy guitars (somewhat similar to some Sludge albums) that are nicely utilized to transmit hellish Black Metal sounds. The pounding bass guitar is pretty well mixed in-between to add more rawness and brutality to the music. The vocals are more like growls than your average BM snarl, but the weirdest part is the Hardcore-ish sound they have to them.

“Bythos In Quintessence” clearly showcases said Hardcore vocals and will leave you in a state of WTF for a few minutes but once you get over them, they are what makes Saturnian Mist different for all the vanilla Black Metal bands. The riffs are nicely varied through the songs and never get old or dull, truly and achievement for such a young band.

The band’s ability to craft very dissonant tracks that nicely come together like “Sacrifice of Faces Unbroken”, “The Watcher’s Feast” and “Aura Mystica” is excellent. These songs feature powerful riffing, nice rhythmical drumming and very crazy vocals that are nicely favored in the production of this release. The slower pace and clean vocals of “Aura Mystica” make it our favorite track of the album. This song is by far the most coherent and mature track of this release.

Closing with the epic “Gnostikoi Ha-Shaitan”, the band keeps a slower pace but maintains the very crushing guitar sound until the end. Excelling in creating very weird and dissonant songs, it is interesting to see how the last two tracks of this release sound very different from the first ones. We can’t really argue with the band’s ‘originality’ when incorporating the Hardcore-ish vocals, but we can’t really say we liked them that much either. In general, “Gnostikoi Ha-Shaitan” is a pretty solid release that any Black Metal fan will enjoy.

Band: Saturnian Mist Album: Gnostikoi Ha-Shaitan
Label: Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions

Release: November, 2011

Oficial Site myspace
Genre: Black Metal

Country: Finland

Rating: 83/100
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