Pest – Hail the Black Metal Wolves of Belial [Reissue]

It’s 1997. In Norway, the sound of the second wave of Black Metal is shifting to a more symphonic and melodic sound. In Finland, Beherit has taken a completely different electronic direction, Impaled Nazarene is moving away from their primitive Black Metal of their eldest work, Archgoat is in hibernation and also here, Black Metal is taking more experimental shapes. But deep within the Finnish underground, the genre is gathering strength to strike upon the world. Horna is about to release their second demo, ‘Hiidentorni’, Warloghe is crafting their debut, and a new evil is born in the city of Lappeenranta. Skratt, Iskariot, Nigrantium and Satanic Warmaster von Armageddon, otherwise also known as Nazgul or Werwolf, form Pest. The band would exist only a few years and play one gig, in the Iltatähti club in their hometown, but their impact on the Finnish scene cannot be denied. To such an extent, that the band ended up reforming briefly just to play their second live gig in existence, over two decades after their demise, at the 2023 edition of Steelfest. To commemorate that occasion, New Era Productions presents a long-awaited vinyl reissue of ‘Hail the Black Metal Wolves of Belial’.

The Finnish Pest (not to be confused with Pest from Sweden or Germany) never ended up recording a full-length, and instead ‘Hail the Black Metal Wolves of Belial’ is a compilation of all the band’s released material. Originally it was released in 2003 on CD and LP, but besides a CD re-issue in 2020  it has been long out of print. On it we find nine tracks that comprise the band’s released recordings: the 1998 demo ‘Hail the Black Imperial Hornsign’, the 1998 7” EP ‘Towards the Bestial Armaggedon’, the 1999 released 7” ‘Belial’s Possessed Wolves’ and two tracks found on compilations, the Woodcut released ‘Talvisota’ and the infamous ‘Northern Heritage’ label showcase. For the collector, there is a version of this reissue with two additional tracks, presented on a bonus 10” mLP. These contain a Blasphemy cover and an alternative version of ‘Satanic Black Mass’, a song that originally ended up on the ‘Northern Heritage’ compilation.

While the Norwegian second wave Black Metal had left its mark around the globe, Pest kept the typical Finnish tradition of not being influenced by that movement. Instead, the material is formed out of their own inspiration, strongly influenced by first wave Black Metal. Elements of Samael, Venom, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost and of course Bathory can all be clearly found on ‘Hail the Black Metal Wolves of Belial’. A song like ‘The Black Forest’ is primitive Black Metal, deeply influenced by Samael and Venom. ‘Towards the Bestial Armageddon’ even has a good dose of Black Sabbath but takes it to a new Blackened sound, which to the same extent applies to the distinctly Hellhammer/Celtic Frost inspired ‘Riding Under the Sign of the Horns’. All these aforementioned songs are from the ‘Hail the Black Imperial Hornsign’ demo and the ‘Towards the Bestial Armaggedon’ EP which were recorded mostly in the same sessions and presents the band’s formative Black Metal sound. The somewhat later recordings on the second side of the compilation have a stronger Thrash vibe to them, with a production that even sounds a little bit more like Death Metal. The exception to some extent is ‘Sabbath of Lust’, a song with the same production but where some influence of a band like Rotting Christ seems obvious.

Pest was a great underground Black Metal band by their own rights, but arguably will mostly be seen as a precursor for one of Finland’s most defining Black Metal bands: Satanic Warmaster. The fact that Pest’s best song, ‘Satanic Winter’ also found its way to one of the Satanic Warmaster releases (the split release with Archgoat) only reinforces that notion. But Pest is more than just an early version of that band. The earliest Satanic Warmaster release, the ‘Bloody Ritual’ demo from 1998, is quite far removed from what Pest offered, opting for a much more simplistic and somewhat French inspired Black Metal recording. It is from ‘Strength & Honour’ and onwards that the work Werwolf did with Pest certainly shines through in Satanic Warmaster on his way to shape the sound of Finnish Black Metal. Thus, ‘Hail the Black Metal Wolves of Belial’ is not just a formative piece of one of the leading acts of Finnish Black Metal scene, but also a release that more than deserves to stand recognized on its own.