Satanic Might - Arrival of the Winterwinds

SATANIC MIGHT - Arrival of the Winterwinds (PUTRID CULT - CD 2016)

Another debut and another really fine black metal release, which to my surprised managed to interest me. Here’s Satanic Might from Olsztyn, Poland with their debut demo “Arrival of the Winterwinds”. It was first released on cassette limited to 88 copies but now Putrid Cult came up with a CD version of it. And yes, it definitely was a good choice, because in terms of raw, cold, “Transilvanian Hunger”-ish black metal Satanic Might sounds not bad at all and personally I did like this stuff.

I won’t be bothering you with in depth review and write 1000 words describing “Arrival of the Winterwinds”. It is completely not necessary. For many of you it should be enough to call it cold, grim black metal, alike to early Darkthrone, Pest, Urgehal, Craft, Armagedda or newer bands like killer Azelisassath. “Arrival of the Winterwinds” will not surprise you with anything exceptional or new, but it’s a solid and actually really killer performance of pure black metal, with everything done in proper and best ways. For example the riffage – it’s simple, almost primitive sometimes… but it does create that special feeling and atmosphere, which you’re looking for in this sort of music. The vocals are great also – I’m so glad they didn’t turn into funny Donald Duck scream, but are proper harsh black metal shrieks that you wanna hear. The production - again, very well done and just perfect for this type of music. I have no idea, where did Satanic Might record this demo, but it sounds exactly as this type of black metal should sound. It’s raw, but powerful and clean enough to hear what are the riffs like and will not irritate with unlistenable noise.

There’re six songs here, including an outro and Satanic Warmaster cover. 27 minutes of music and believe me, if you’re into this traditional, second wave black metal from Scandinavia, then you will like “Arrival of the Winterwinds” a lot. I did, it was a very positive surprise for me… and damn, I wanna hear more from Satanic Might. A vinyl edition of this demo would be also nice to see.

Final rate: 75/100