From such a faraway place as Chile come Decem Maleficivm proclaiming The End of Satan. And there I was thinking that that guy would be around forever, because of cosmic balance and all that.

Decem Maleficivm themselves, in any case, are still there and have been around for quite some time. Founded somewhere around the end of 2000, they released their first demo in 2002. After a pause of almost 15 years followed an EP titled Motivatio Intrinseca. The album at hand is the band’s first long player. The End of Satan gained some attention right after it was released digitally earlier this year, and the band got to share the stage with Rotting Christ on the occasion of their show in Santiago de Chile.

I had not heard of the Decem Maleficivm prior to this review and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The watercolor painting on the album’s cover might be a good fit for atmospheric black metal, but that’s not what this is. The press info also led me on a somewhat false track. There is black metal here, yes, but there are also a lot of very pompous passages, with operatic vocals, guitar wizardry and synth work that remind me of power metal, not of avant-garde metal as listed on the bandcamp page.

Opener The Ceremony starts out with a melodic black metal sound and throaty, growly vocals, but the atmosphere soon changes, becomes more dramatic and grandiose because of a switch to clean vocals and soaring guitars. And throughout the album these are pretty much the two modes the band moves in. While the music’s overall tempo is relatively steady, the constant mood changes and switches between melodic black metal and a sound closer to power metal, are the most defining characteristic of The End of Satan for me.

The album is in general an easy and pleasant listen, because it is very melodic. Regarding musicianship or production there is nothing which sticks out negatively. On the contrary, there are a lot of hooks that will catch the listener’s ear. The title track La Fin de Satan, for example, begins with a catchy riff that got stuck in my mind for quite some time. But I’m not one for pompousness and grandiosity. I like to hear something odd or unusual, which this does not offer.

To sum up: Pretty good, but nothing unheard of. Might find fans among people who like both black and power metal.

(7/10 Slavica)

https://www.facebook.com/DecemMaleficivm

https://ladlo.bandcamp.com/album/la-fin-de-satan