Satanic sleaze revamped…
Review by Mark Granger
Release date: 26 January 2015
What do you do if you’re a band that’s been around for 18 years and have only released four albums? Release an eight track EP with only one new song on that’s what! Oh, but don’t worry Heretic have been busy in the studio, oh yes. Originally a band consisting of one guitar and drums, Heretic have decided to re-record seven tracks from their deleted debut album Gods Over Humans, Slaves Under Satan with their current line-up of guitar, drums and two bass players. Probably blissfully unaware that the fans prefer the badly recorded, ramshackle sounds that graced that first record.
There’s no denying that the songs sound clearer here, much in the same way Venom’s recently released album (reviewed here) sounds, sonically, leaps and bounds beyond Black Metal. Yet no fan would say that, as good as it was that they’d prefer the new one to the classic one, but at least Venom’s album was a bunch of new songs.
Rant over; let’s get on with saying if the music that is there is any good. The EP opens with new track ‘Bezerker’ which is actually a really good example of Heretic’s brand of ‘satanic sleaze’ punk, with frenetic guitar and singer Thomas Goats’ throaty shouts an indication that the band are far from dead yet. The rest of the EP consists of the beefed up new versions of their old material which still sounds surprisingly fresh, especially ‘Mr Chainsaw’ and the pogo-riffic ‘Demonic Slaughter’.
Alive Under Satan is mainly a pointless exercise in revisiting the past when it would have probably made more sense to re-release the original album but the sole new song on offer shows the band on form. So it’s still an album’s worth of good sleazy punk music.
6 out of 10
Track listing:
- Berserker
- Mr. Chainsaw
- Demonic Slaughter
- Forever Possessed
- Gods ‘n’ Slaves
- Give Me Darkness
- Seven Hails
- The Devil, My Saviour
