Forget King Diamond for a moment and listen to this, Fool. Michael Denner and Hank Shermann are the main men behind the cacophonous and simply put Denner / Shermann. Alumni to the monstrous Mercyful Fate. Denner / Shermanns’ Satan’s Tomb is derisive of Mercyful Fates’ original Don’t Break The Oath and Melissa. Both of them featured playing on guitar on those definitive albums, and taking rightly from the unrivalled Mercyful Fate the power intensifies through this record like a heavy metal resurgence.
In carrying invigorating riffs the stock of this primal smorgasbord of affliction sounds like it was fashioned in the pits of despotism, making great times easy listening. You can’t get too comfortable with Satan’s Tomb. As knowledge is power. Especially when it’s used to craft songs that cast lightening and then leave the thunderous shadows of yesteryear. With the type of riff that is still strong in comparison to a golden era of heavy metal, that was left long ago in the realm of limbo.
If there was a principle of fine art in riffing Satan’s Tomb would be inscribed with a prosperous destiny and mastered into a throne of malcontent. Although just a teaser, there is a great amount of detail flowing seamlessly through this turn of modern deviance. The attitude has the same components of a weapon primed by and in a metallurgy, shaped by pure spirits. It is supernal dissonance.
7/10
