Thursday 1 June 2017

SAPATA ~ SATANIBATOR .... review


Finnish doomsters Sapata, hail from Tampere, Southern Finland and jam a deliciously dark occult rock groove that mixes prog-ish complexity with doom like atmospherics coated in strong, powerful vocal melodies. The band, Saara Šamane (vocals), TT Suosalo (bass), Felix Voltti (guitar) and Anttu Puutio (drums), were formed in 2014 under the banner of Satanibator before changing their name to Sapata and have been honing their chops on the Finnish live circuit and around Europe ever since. The band recently went in to the studio with an armful of fully formed songs and a ideas for a few more the result of which is the bands debut album "Satanibator"(Inverse Records).



Sapata plough a furrow seeded by likes of The Devil's Blood, Blood Ceremony and Witch Mountain, dark atmospheric grooves, that sit in a place between the proto-doom/heavy rock of  Black Sabbath and Pentagram and the more traditional doom of Candlemass and Solitude of Aeturnus, a sound often referred to as "occult rock" but one Sapata prefer to call "mystic rock" or "doom'n'groove".
Sapata, have in Saara Samane a singer of rare quality, her strong vocal tones, edged with a metallic bluesy grittiness, soar and swoop, and in places whisper, over a backdrop of dark, dense heavy metallic bluster that sees Voltti ripping and shredding a mixture of soaring bluesy.and neo classical guitar colouring in and around Sousalo and Puutio's immense and impressive foundations of grizzled bass and powerful percussion. Songs like "Gobi", with it's North African themes and motifs, the metallic blues infused "Styx" and "Death Depression Life" with it's big epic doom vibe, are big atmospheric hard rocking tomes but the band can mx it up also with "MDD" and "Ararat" showing a slightly lighter, gentler approach, still as intense, but tempered by moments of dark serenity, all are played with a conviction and commitment that bands who have been together twice as long would struggle to match.
Superbly executed songs that are well written and arranged make "Satanibator" one of the best debut's of 2017 so far, check it out and buy it here

© 2017 Frazer Jones

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