CoC : Rok - This Is Satanik : Review

Rok - _This Is Satanik_
(Osmose, 1998)
by: Paul Schwarz (2 out of 10)

The crazy Australian who fronts death metal band Sadistik Exekution now releases this, his first solo album. With others of considerably more lengthy pseudonyms in tow (The Imposter, Princess Heinkel Hellfukker, Hellaxe Snot Hammer and Piston Thunderblood), he ploughs through nine tracks in only just over 30 minutes. In this short time, there is about 25 minutes of standard songs. This material is mostly reminiscent of (early) Venom, though it is not up to the same standard, and other raw thrash bands. Other than this, the album is filled up by what I would call a lot of unnecessary and very unexciting tracks. "Fukked" is a load of bad organ playing with a guy screaming in mock agony behind it and then shouting, in what I find a rather amusing Australian accent, "Fuck off with your pufta, fuckin' keyboard, fuckin' shit". This would be a trashy album in any case, but when I got to track eight ("Multidimensional Mentality") and found that it was a total rip-off of Celtic Frost's "Danse Macabre", I was ready to smash the disc into pieces -- it irritated me that much. I guess the fact that "Pestilence of Insanity Backwards" is a total Frost rip-off song shouldn't really have surprised me after that. Though the album's beginning seems to have some good, straight ahead thrashy metal tunes, none of it is an original formula, there are a whole shitload of bands who can do it better and I don't imagine, considering the riff rip-offs I -have- managed to spot, that all of these riffs are original anyway. If you have -every- drunk and angry thrash album in existence and you're -still- not satisfied, maybe there is a reason for you to want this. If not, I can't see a reason to fill space with it.

(article published 13/2/1999)