SARATAN – Antireligion

The Polish Saratan (means “cancer” in Hebrew and Arabic), has over the years created a form of Thrash, although it is with barely an old school nature, yet, with its modernity along with Death Metal elements, can be enjoyable.

The first thought when reading over the info of this band might be that it’s going to be something similar to Vader or Decapitated (two bands who have a sort of a connection to this band), however, not entirely. Saratan is closer to the form of Virgin Snatch, Machine Head and even Perzonal War of Germany.

Since 2003, the band’s year of formation, it combined the means of Thrash in accordance with material out of the Death Metal world, all swimming under in the pool of a top rate production made in Hertz Studios (the place where Vader records). The Death elements in their albums are merely in the music like cool grinds from time to time, themes, bass lines and some of the guitar passages. However, it is rather difficult to stand before those claims because of the closeness between Thrash and Death, even their modern and groovy versions. Other than that, Saratan, with their new album, Antireligion made this mix work for them again. If you do not know the style of Virgin Snatch or Perzonal War, for that matter, Saratan will be a cool surprise for you, even though their perceptions are a bit different from those two bands mentioned.

Antireligion adds something else to the music, besides being semi-complex in its writing method. The band has a sort of affiliation to anti-religion and anti-political themes; they seem to be drawn to Middle Eastern sounds. On some of their tracks, especially on the opener, “Extinguish The Hope”, and the closer, “Antireligion Pt. 2”, various acoustic guitar passages are evident in the spirit of the orient (Middle East) along with sorts of percussion of native drums. In addition, the band was able to lay out a very nice atmosphere in order to slightly let off the thrashy image of theirs. However, most of their efforts were contributed to attacking the themes that they seem to be against, so expect no rest or leisure, just heaviness, strong emotional solos and a sweet sense of anger.

Although this album, and this band, could go far, and they could in their future, the Antireligion album is not ideal. The band’s power vocalist/bassist, Jarek Niemiec, has his way to keep on being a wonderful vocalist. The singing rhythms on the album, between songs, sometimes repeat themselves and although the songs’ music might be great, his vocals’ rhythm could have been different when the band sat and wrote it down. In addition to that, it is hard to create a full-scale hit album, even though the band’s songs have enormous potential.
Antireligion is Saratan’s best work to date, My Kingdom Music are fortunate to have this band. Their Thrash figure is very interesting and immensely heavy. If you are in for a constant attack on politics and religion, enter Saratan’s mind.

Steinmetal’s highlights on the tracklist

1. Extinguishing the Hope
2. Antireligion Pt. 1
3. Dead Inside
   
4. My Demise
5. Reject Adonai
6. Pray for the Rest
7. Destroy Yourself
8. Crave Suicide
9. Antireligion Pt. 2

Lineup

Jarek Niemiec – Vocals, Bass
Adam Augustyñski – Guitar
Wiktor Niemiec – Drums