Artist: Solar Deity
Album: In The Name Of Satan [EP]
Label: Nephalist Recordings
Mastered and mixed by: Ayan De
Release Date: April 1, 2012
Satanism is most often defined as the act of worshipping and admiring the evil deity, Satan, who is believed to be the counterpart of a controversial little man in the sky we all know by the name of God. The followers are assumed to believe in suppression of desire and human nature. But the Church Of Satan totally denies this and states that they do not âworshipâ or believe in Satan or any other supernatural being as such and that it represents nothing but âresponsibility to the responsible instead of concern for psychic vampiresâ. Well whatever it is, Black Metal artists sure do have a topic to write on; I mean what possibly could be darker and more unruly than this?
With use of satanic lyrics and imagery, Solar Deity is a Black Metal band hailing from Mumbai. Originally starting as a two-piece band in late 2011, the band constituted members from the original line-up of the legendary Indian Blackened Death Metal band, Demonic Resurrection, Aditya Mehta and Yash Pathak, who also have a Brutal Death Metal project, going by the name of Exhumation. We all know Aditya (a name which means âThe Sun Godâ in Sanskrit) from his famous blog, Mehta Kya Kehta, in which he writes about everything, from movie reviews to booze reviews to album reviews to journals. So far, Solar Deity have released two EPs and one single and recently performed for the first time at Trend Slaughter Fest III, with each member in the attire of The Grim Reaper, wearing black robes. The current line-up of the band is: Aditya Mehta on vocals and guitars, Yash Pathak on drums, Animesh Das on bass and Akash Shah on guitars.
âIn The Name Of Satanâ is the very first release by the band, consisting of only the founder members. The EP was released on April 1 last year and the band quickly gained a lot of acclamation in the metal circle. The record basically consists of five lengthily titled tracks, in which the first track, âAn Everlasting Fire In Those Of Purest Flesh And Bloodâ and the last track, âLast Rays From A Dying Sun Cannot Penetrate The Impending Darknessâ are half-minute long ambient pieces with sound of a temple bell tolling. We can witness a collection of dark and murky progressions laid with some crazy drumlines in the rest of the tracks. âDeclaration Of Satanic Victory And Eternal Reignâ and âBlasphemous Chanting On A Moonless Nightâ display skilful tremolo picked harmonies, which when played with intense blastbeats sound pretty insane.
A good thing about the EP is that there is a perfect balance between melody and aggression. With the first two tracks being penetrative and somewhat swift, âCeremonial Feast At The Black Templeâ is a comparatively slower, sublime and more atmospheric track which features slow and gloomy harmonies in the second half of the song. The choruses on each song sound simply marvellous and pretty headbangable with forceful vocals and melodic riffs. The vocal performance has been truly amazing in the entire EP and it just shows that how much experience has been gathered in all these years. The work on guitars is good too; however you can hear the pick-noise in some riffs. The quality of composition is pretty commendable throughout the album; although the intros are a bit ordinary, the rest of the portions of each songs sound faultless. The songs have been crafted perfectly with well-tailored bridges to go through the transitions.
The production of the album is okay according to the black metal standards, although it lacks bass. The guitars sound perfect with an aptly chosen patch and nice mastering. However they donât gel very well with the drums, which sound like they have been digitally programmed (I may be wrong!).
Summing, the EP is a pretty cult and amazing release by the band. Do check it out.
Ceremonial Feast At The Black Temple:
