Formed by longtime friends François, Laurent and Frank (formerly from Shovel and Houston Swing Engine), Hey Satan has some huge influences including Led Zeppelin, RATM and Kyuss. Now whilst the latter band might conjure up the closest sonic sonic counterpart there’s certainly enough groove and mighty guitar in the mix to make a rather meaty sonic stew.
It all starts with the rumble, roll and groove of ‘Housewife’s Blues’ and the Hendrixy wail and military drums that open ‘South is the New West’ (which name checks ‘Back in Black’ and ‘Kill the King’): a song that bursts into a thick sludgy groove, with bass pummeling it to an almost industrial level. Its a suitably monolithic opening and an impressive start as could be hoped for from this Swiss trio.
If you want to be impressed and love your groove based rock but don’t want a band that just bashes out Sabbath clones then single ‘Golgotha Beach’ has a nice spacey rolling crawl that draws you into the hypnotic lyric. It’s as understated as we get here. ‘Show Me Your Teeth Fucker!” just rocks, foot to the floor; ‘KO Computer’ wades into psychedelic waters waist deep and ‘Pork Tournados’ threatens Prong territory.
‘Prayers are For Cowards’ is probably my pick here and really sets out the accessibility of the band, coming across a little screaming Trees in texture! Then comes probably the only homage to Pliny the Elder (that staple of school Latin lessons) on a Rock album in the strangely titled ‘Pline L’Ancien we Salute You’ which of course is not at all about the great writer at all.
Title track ‘Orange Moon’ gets the groove back on in style and closer ‘Heavy Like a Rose’ leads out in style not a million miles from a band like Clutch. I’m impressed.
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