“Turn The Tide“ is the new single from long-running heavy metal titans, SATAN. The track comes by way of the band’s forthcoming new full-length, “Songs In Crimson”, set for release on September 13th via Metal Blade Records.
SATAN‘s history is storied, their albums and incendiary live shows, iconic. The Newcastle, England-bred lineup may quip that their career has been “forty-four years of prolonged mayhem with a twenty-year lunch break“ – forming in 1980, eventually pausing before reuniting in 2011 – but circa 2024 finds the band thriving, writing, recording, and touring at the top of their game.
Proof positive is their seventh studio album, and third for Metal Blade, “Songs In Crimson”. If 2022’s “Earth Infernal” album was brutal, up-tempo and with loud guitars, guitarist Russ Tippins calls “Songs In Crimson” “concise. It’s more to-the-point and gets there quicker. One of the reasons behind the album title is that this record is very ‘song’ focused. There’s more punch this time around. Each chorus speaks for itself.” With influences from King Crimson to Mercyful Fate, SATAN‘s own stylings remain unique, the band’s NWOBHM origins a springboard for musical and lyrical creativity, commentary, and nonconformity.
While “Songs In Crimson” features lyrics including “a once-great nation is going down“ and “this is the end of an era,“ SATAN offers no quick fix. “There is always hope; solutions are not for us musicians to proclaim,” Tippins believes. “Each song has its own different theme. While there is no title track as such, the song ‘Deadly Crimson,’ which is an anti-capitalism narrative, is as close as it gets to that. As a concept, making money from money is fatally flawed in that it depends on constant growth,” Tippins says. “But constant growth is obviously impossible; a conveyor belt of sacrificial lambs.”
Tippins continues, “‘Turn The Tide’ is the classic ‘King Canute’ scenario — the deluded head of state who believes himself to be divine and sets out to prove it by standing in front of the sea and ordering the waves to retreat. They don’t of course. We are kind of using that as an allegory to illustrate the ridiculous standpoint of certain Jingoistic Brits who believe that foreigners have no place in our country. It’s the shortest song on the album. And also the fastest!“
“Songs In Crimson” Track Listing:
01. Frantic Zero
02. Era (The Day Will Come)
03. Whore of Babylon
04. Sacramental Rites
05. Martyrdom
06. Turn the Tide
07. Captives
08. Curse in Disguise
09. Truth Bullet
10. Deadly Crimson
