Blood for Satan…Black Dawn Review

Allow me to step into the fray with the cliché of,“Infernal Hailz!” My name is Denman, and I hold down the dark fortresses of Washington, DC. Enough about me, however, let’s talk about a little metal, shall we?

During the endless gluttony of black metal releases that met blood to air during the last decade, there were surely many an overlooked black pearl. One album I’ve always thought slipped through those wicked cracks (often filled with questionable releases by New York record collecting jet setters), was Black Dawn’s, “Blood for Satan.” Even forgoing the fact that they sported one of the best album covers and names for this aural dagger, the group hammered out a relentlessly punishing ode to horned gods, from beginning to end.

Marching through the snows of Finland, Black Dawn came into creation around 1993, thereby falling amongst the ranks of the original second wave of black metal. “Blood for Satan,” (which was released in 2001), more than illustrates that elder lineage, with a well crafted, yet brutally kvlt sound. Here vocals serpentine everywhere from Darkthrone, to Beherit, to early Deicide, while being fortified by machinegunning drums and a dizzying hornet’s swarm of guitar layers. By and large there are no brooding atmospheric passages, and no quiet acoustic meditations.  “Pitbound-4^th Trial of Acolyte,” begins with a guitar riff built of rage and hate, and does not let up until Black Dawn lets the corpse breathe with the epilogue of, “Within Ye Woods, Before Ye Throne.”  The only thing that seems remotely out of place are the samples couched amongst the tracks, which fall under the more speechlike interludes found on crust records. But with sound bytes of abject human suffering, at least the content is apropos. As for subject matter, well, if you can’t deduce that from the album title, “Blood for Satan,” even I can’t help your reading comprehension skills.

I will have to admit that, other than the above, I know precious little about Black Dawn. They could storm through the mountains at midnight, inciting fear and terror with an army of daemonic wolves. Or they could shoot adolescent sneers to the patrons of the Chick Fil A at the local food court. This matters little to me while listening to “Blood for Satan,” because, no matter who they may be, Black Dawn created a quintessential black metal album. So, as the seasons change, and the leaves slowly grow brown and die, do yourself a favor and give this somewhat overlooked release a listen.

[audio:http://staging.cvltnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/01-Pitbound-The-4th-Trial-of-Acolyte.mp3|titles=01 – Pitbound (The 4th Trial of Acolyte)]
[audio:http://staging.cvltnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/07-Blood-for-Satan.mp3|titles=07 – Blood for Satan]