Suicidal Angels – Profane Prayer

Written by on 12-05-2024 at 21:00.

The Greek band Suicidal Angels has released a successor to their 2019 album Years Of Agression, which was well received at Zware Metalen headquarters. Album number eight is entitled Profane Prayer and contains – yes eight – songs with a total playing time of well over 45 minutes.

Suicidal Angels manages to follow up on the sound that they showcased on the previous album. Profane Prayer kicks off with the first single, When The Lions Die. Fans of a modern Kreator can indulge themselves with what they are presented with here: heavy riffs, pounding drums and even raw vocals in broken English.

While the album opener is quite intense already, Crypts Of Madness picks up the pace and second single Purified By Fire just takes it up another notch as if it were nothing. After about four minutes the band takes its foot off the throttle, going for a juicy menacing riff, thus retaining the tension in the song.

And suddenly there is the song Deathstalker, opening with an acoustic guitar and building up slowly. The band, in partnership with number of Greek artists, really take their time to develop this track as the song clocks in at over eight minutes. From Nightfall we hear Efthimis Karadimas on bass. You might know Fotis Benardo as the drummer of Septicflesh or Necromantia. Sakis Tolis (or Necromayhem) is known as the singer and guitarist of none other than Rotting Christ. This song proves that a lot is happening in the Greek metal scene.

Before I conclude, I simply have to mention the wonderful bass guitar loop at the beginning of Guard Of The Insane and the dreamy sounds of closing track The Fire Paths Of Fate which seems to echo a bit of Greek (?) culture. Like the aforementioned Deathstalker this is a longer track that greatly increases the average song duration on this album.

Those longer songs provide a pleasant change from the mainly straightforward songs that are quite similar to what Kreator is offering us nowadays. It may not be all that original but if you are inspired by another band, you better ensure that your performance is as it should and this is exactly what Suicidal Angels is doing on Profane Prayer.

Score:

80/100

Label:

Nuclear Blast, 2024

Tracklisting:

  1. When The Lions Die
  2. Crypts Of Madness
  3. Purified By Fire
  4. Deathstalker
  5. Profane Prayer
  6. The Return Of The Reaper
  7. Guard Of The Insane
  8. Virtues Of Destruction
  9. The Fire Paths Of Fate

Line-up:

  • Nick Melissourgos – Vocals, guitar
  • Orfeas Tzortzopoulos – Drums
  • Angel Lelikakis –Bass guitar
  • Gus Drax – Guitar

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