Satan

Among the New Wave of British Heavy Metal groups, few histories prove as tangled as that of the outfit best known as Satan. The musicians repeatedly altered their identity—Blind Fury and Pariah represent merely two of the temporary designations chosen whenever the members believed their original title hindered commercial prospects—and their path continually crossed those of other North East ensembles, particularly Blitzkrieg and Skyclad.

Toward the close of 1980 in Newcastle, England, vocalist Trevor Robinson, guitarists Steve Ramsey and Russ Tippins, bassist Graeme English, and drummer Andy Reed formed a reasonably stable unit that would eventually adopt the Satan name. Independent label Guardian Records issued the band’s debut single, the soon-to-be-collectable “Kiss of Death,” in the opening months of 1982. After drummer Sean Taylor joined and the group cycled through replacement singers, first Ian Swift and then the more seasoned Brian Ross (ex-Blitzkrieg), work commenced on a debut album. The intensely heavy, near-thrash Court in the Act appeared in January 1984 via Neat Records and received largely favorable notices. A well-received European tour followed, yet momentum faltered when Ross departed shortly after returning home to revive Blitzkrieg.

Former Blind Fury frontman Lou Taylor, previously of Kevin Heybourne’s post-Angel Witch project, stepped in, but his assertive influence prompted the band to adopt the Blind Fury moniker, generating fan confusion and severing continuity with the recently issued Court in the Act. Taylor also urged a stylistic softening, resulting in the more hard-rock-oriented Out of Reach, issued by the fledgling Roadrunner label in 1985. Its weak sales swiftly prompted second thoughts about both the musical shift and the name change, leading to Taylor’s dismissal and a swift reversion to Satan.

Signing with Germany’s Steamhammer imprint, the band recruited vocalist Michael Jackson (distinct from the pop icon) and returned to heavier material, first with the 1986 Into the Future EP and then the 1987 near-return to form Suspended Sentence. Both releases performed more strongly on the Continent, where the group toured with Running Wild that year, than in the U.K., underscoring a broader geographic realignment in heavy metal audiences that likewise affected contemporaries Savage and Jaguar. By this point Satan’s prospects appeared limited, and the musicians once again discarded their name in favor of the seemingly more flexible Pariah. That incarnation recorded three albums before several members later joined the avant-folk-thrash collective Skyclad.

Satan resurfaced for a single 2004 performance at Germany’s Wacken Open Air festival, yet nearly a decade passed before the group reentered the studio. Life Sentence, their third official full-length, arrived in 2013 on Listenable Records and was supported by North and South American dates. The following year the musicians recorded their fourth album, Atom by Atom, which surfaced in autumn 2015. In April 2018 Satan announced their signing to Metal Blade Records and immediately resumed studio work. That June they revealed a September release for Cruel Magic, engineered and mixed by Dave Curle and Dario Mollo. To preview the ten-track set, the band issued a video for the lead single “The Doomsday Clock” and scheduled an American tour.