Head of the Demon – Sathanas Trismegistos (Invictus Productions)

The apparition of Head of the Demon in 2012, with their self-titled debut album, was a real joy after witnessing the demise of Kaamos, the band which (next to Repugnant) lighted the resurgence of Death Metal in the first decade of the XXI century. I perfectly remember seeing them at Party San 2006 (what was supposed to be their last show ever, although later they did a few more if I’m not wrong) and thinking how could a band with their potential and position at that time call it quits, which they actually confirmed with their posthumous EP ‘Scales of Leviathan’. 

But let’s focus again on the band I mean to speak about, jump in time six years later and mention, just in case someone still does not know the relation between both bands, that Head of the Demon was formed by two ex-Kaamos (and A Mind Confused) members, Konstantin Papavassiliou (guitars, who I remember playing live with Dead Congregation too at some point if my memory serves well) and Thomas Åberg; and start by saying their first album didn’t leave my car stereo for a while back when it came out, in 2012. Their blend of old-schooled Black Metal and Doom completely captivated me, on one side because it sounded like nothing else I could think of in the current Black Metal scene, and on the other because it reeked of old cults from the nineties without the need of being one more band in the always growing army of clones.

So, when Invictus announced the release of ‘Sathanas Trimesgistos’ I knew I had to grab this LP as soon as it would be out, with no need to listen to any advance track. However, such was my impatience that I finally ended up listening to their label’s bandcamp digital version a lot of times before getting the piece of wax. And I was both surprised and amazed by what I found in this second album of the Swedes. Surprised because there’s a big step from their first album, even if this is a perfect continuation to ‘Head of the Demon’. And amazed because, since the very first listen it was clear to me that this was going to be a great album, even if it required a few proper listens before it properly clicked.

One of the things I like a lot about ‘Sathanas Trismegistos’ since the very first listen though, and probably what has most clearly got stuck in my head from this record, what definitely captured my attention in mind and soul towards it with every new listening, is the fact that it sounds so archaic and it flows in such a magical and ethereal way. And this is partially due to the fact that one of the big changes of this record comes from the way they managed to sound; the guitars and the bass are far from the traditionally highly distorted, usually more on the high end of frequencies, kind of sound one expects on a Black Metal record.

​It’s quite the opposite here, as distortion is very (very) subtle, and mostly present when they let some power chords free, while on the more dynamically mid-paced driven progressions they sound warm and very clean, especially the bass, who takes a very leading role along all the records. That, and I should also mention a quite remarkable amount of reverb, which helps making notes float for a while. So it was not a surprise when I started digging into the album recording information and discovered it had been recorded live in studio (Top Sound Studio, where they mixed and mastered it too), except for the vocals, which were done at Gehinnom Studio. And I say it’s no surprise because you can feel how the whole band gathers as a unit due to how naturally everything evolves.

Although the production is not the only reason for such an ethereal sound. Their new songs are way more laid back and atmospheric, in a Doomy/Prog or “Occult Rock” kind of way without leaving the proper Black Metal spectrum, with an amazing rhythm section, especially if we look at Thomas work on the drums combining slow and simple patterns with other much more complex and dynamic progressions, which I simply love. Vocals are treated in a very personal way too, because of the use of a lot of reverb, creating the effect that there’s different voices at once, and second because in most of the songs they repeat lyrics a lot, forcing the listener to end up singing them in a trace-like manner (which I found myself doing, especially on “Nox Est Lux” and “L.L.L.”).

We could definitely draw some lines between Head of the Demon and both old bands, such as Black Sabbath, Celtic Frost or Mercyful Fate, and newer ones such as Negative Plane/Occultation or Saturnalia Temple (with whom Konstantin played on ‘Ur’), because of the gloomy and kind of theatrical ambiances they induce. I could think about old Samael or Mortuary Drape too for some reason. It might be the occult feeling and maybe even the vocals, even if Saibot uses a quite cleaner tone than Vorphalack. But these Swedes sound way slower and less aggressive, and in some way they retain a pretty personal essence. It might be closeness to a more proto-metallic sound, the way they build quite repetitive and monotonous songs which surprisingly end up being deeply progressive and atmospheric, or simply that their songs do not retain the impression that they only listened to Black Metal.

If all this wasn’t enough yet, I will finally add that the record is very well presented, with a cover reproducing Cornelis Galle “Lucifer” (with the addition of the album title in a way it simply looks like it always had been there) plus some extra artwork from Mr. Timo Ketola (the devil wings on the backcover), Thomas Karlsson (the Lucifer drawing on the insert sheet) and Michael Idehall on some additional art.

Hail Sathanas Trismegistos. Hail Head of the Demon. Hail this impressive album.

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www.invictusproductions.net​