Bestial Warlust: Satan's Fist

Releasing a rough around the edges 3-song demo a full sixteen years after it was laid to tape is a move bound to raise a few eyebrows among the metal populace, even in a time when reissuing everything under the sun is a commonplace practice. Yet when that lowly demo represents the final studio output from one of Australia's most infamous underground acts, well, that's a horse of a different color.

Bestial Warlust's 1994 debut album Vengeance War 'Till Death served as a defiant middle finger to much of the cleaner and more technically precise death metal of the day emanating from the sweltering wasteland of Tampa (or Morrisound studios to be more precise). Here was an album that lovingly adopted the bastard offspring that Sodom and Sarcófago had wrought into existence a decade earlier and decided the only logical direction such a sound go was more speed, more noise, more violence and bloodlust until the whole damn thing threatened to spiral out of control into an unsustainable wall of feedback. The album garnered its fair share of negative feedback for its uncompromising, and some might say one-dimensional, approach but these fellas were never about doing anything by halves. 1995's follow-up Blood & Valour reigned in the chaos ever so slightly but maintained the belligerent intensity of the debut and then... it was all over. The final two remaining members, Joe Skullfucker and Marcus Hellcunt, would go on to record this short demo before putting the band to rest for good.

Satan's Fist represents a what if scenario of where the band was going had they stuck around to record a third album. The oppressive sonic thunderfuck of Vengeance War 'Till Death is largely intact but tempered with a subtle epic streak and a catchiness that hint at a never-to-be-realized level of nuance in their songwriting, a concept that previously no reasonable person would have associated with these maniacs. At a notch under twelve minutes and with an expected demo level production this release stands primarily as a "diehards only" prospect aimed squarely at those who already count themselves as fans of the band's two full-lengths.

Despite the short length and raw sound I can easily recommend this to those into like-minded black/death hordes such as Revenge, Teitanblood or Impiety based on the quality of the material present here. Only Old Scratch knows what Bestial Warlust might have conjured up from the pit had they persevered but based on this I suspect it would have been a damn fine album. Fortunately for us this band would serve as a spawning ground for a legion of other fine Australian bands but for Bestial Warlust this demo marked the end of the road.

Track Listing
1. Satan's Fist
2. Left For Vultures
3. Hell's Militia

Added: March 10th 2013
Reviewer: Ryan Skow
Score:
Related Link: Hells Headbangers
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Language: english

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