Denner/Shermann – Satan’s Tomb


DennerShermann-SatansTomb

Between 1981 and 1984, Mercyful Fate recorded some of the finest Heavy Metal that has ever been written. This is not open to discussion. The news that classic-era guitarists Michael Denner and Hank Shermann would be reuniting for an EP of old-school MF-inspired Metal was, therefore, a genuinely exciting one – and also one very vulnerable to disappointment.

One of the first things that strikes you as the opening title-track of Satan’s Tomb (Metal Blade) emerges in a burst of overcharged riffing is that this is absolutely not the watered-down Old Man Nostalgia Metal you might have expected – the guitars are raw and gnarly, the riffs sharp and the melodies appropriately morbid. One of the things that makes early Fate so timeless is the sense of otherworldliness that hangs about it: the stench of the crypt, the touch of sinister magic that makes it more than just raw Rock n’Roll. Satan’s Tomb does a surprisingly good job of capturing this atmosphere – there’s nothing polished or nice about the sound.

If there’s a flaw – and you’ve probably sensed that there is – it’s with the song-writing. There are plenty of great riffs and sharp hooks all over Satan’s Tomb, but that’s the problem – they are ALL OVER it, scattered around with no real sense of purpose or structure. The songs on Melissa (Roadrunner) were often quite disparate in their elements, but they were always assembled with a spirit and character that solidified them into meaningful songs – the four tracks of Satan’s Tomb feel like they’ve been knocked on the floor by an incautious cleaner and reassembled at random, and the effect is that it’s hard to really lose yourself in the material.

There’s a lot to like about Satan’s Tomb – great atmosphere, sharp riffing and a real sense that this a group of veterans who really WANT to party like it’s 1982, rather than simply thinking that there’s some money to be made from it – but loose song-writing holds it back from being quite the achievement that it should be.

 

6.5/10

RICHIE HR