63. Satan - "Songs in Crimson"

This year we are rather bereft of our usual category of “bands that you didn’t realise were still making records making a decent record”. The nearest we can come is this, Satan. Before Venom roared into view, Satan were the North East’s primary contribution to the new wave of British heavy metal. They stood out because they played faster than anybody else and without realising the ship that they were launching, they created the blueprint for what would go on to become thrash.

Like anybody involved in NWOBHM that wasn’t Iron Maiden, Saxon or Def Leppard, they pretty soon hit the rocks and were scuppered by an infinite cascade of diminishing returns. They eventually returned in 2011 buoyancied by adoration from our Germanic cousins who seem to venerate anybody who even thought about picking up a guitar in the late 70s or early 80s. Since a brief reunion to play Waken they have continued and what should be applauded is that arguably the classic line-up is still together.

This is album number seven and their fifth since they got back together. “Songs in Crimson” is distinctly vintage but is far far better than you would expect form a bunch of seventy-year-olds. It sounds like a lost classic for those more innocent days when Metal was simpler, bolder and wore tighter pants. The point is that I love it. It talks to the teenage me who looked reverentially at what NWOBHM created. It is just sing-along track after sing-along track and is crucially enjoyable.