Review: Bestial Raids “Master Satan’s Witchery”

Bestial Raids “Master Satan’s Witchery”
Nuclear War Now! Productions

Bestial by definition means “savagely cruel and depraved” and raid by definition means “a sudden attack on an enemy by troops, aircraft, or other armed forces in warfare” and with both of those definitions in mind that is kind of what Bestial Raids sounds like. Bestial Raids is no new comer to the game as they have been around since 2003 and now fourteen years later they are still providing sickening, blasphemous and utterly destructive tunes. “Master Satan’s Witchery” is their newest upcoming release and with this seven track soul slaughtering release you shouldn’t expect anything other than fuzzed out, dissonant, chaotic and purely sinister music and that is exactly what you get within this release.

Bestial Raids begins this release with “Elder Devilry” which starts you out with dissonant feedback before they really get into the meat of the record. After that brief moment of feedback Bestial Raids hits you with just about everything that they have and then some. They don’t ease you into this release at all as they charge ahead with a blackened sonic assault that just does not quit until the final gnarled note has sounded. “Elder Devilry” is a chaotic song that blasts you with utterly sinister sounds that sound as though they may have been coughed up from the lungs ov hell themselves and that is just the sinister beginning. Once “Elder Devilry” has concluded Bestial Raids rumbles on rolling out six more songs that are just as sinister and wretched as the ones that came before it.

Throughout this new release that seems to have been brewed in darkness Bestial Raids keeps the pace at a wicked one for the majority of the time only slowing down to a mid tempo every now and then to keep you guessing and to keep things fresh and not completely dizzying. Through each song you end up getting pelted by menacing riffs and tumultuous drumming that do their very best to keep your neck cranking and your head spinning. On top of all of the metallic blackened noise are vocals that are just as dissonant as the instruments are and they end up transitioning between raspy highs and deadly throat shredding growls. With everything combined-including a raw and unforgiving production-what you get seven songs that are utterly blasphemous and vile that keep your headbanging throughout.

In pure black metal fashion Bestial Raids keeps everything raw, unkept and as evil as they could possibly get it, and that’s what this type of barbaric black metal should sound like. “Master Satan’s Witchery” is an evil and entertaining listen that keeps your attention-and soul-throughout seven skin blistering songs. As soon as you press play you know that you will end up trapped in a vortex of abyssal darkness and even so you want to keep listening. After fourteen years Bestial Raids still knows how to put out a solid record that will make your head spin and your soul shred itself in two, and with that being said this album is a good one and is sure to please the scarred ear drums of black metal fans.