Melodic, technical, frantic, and fucking excellent. That’s how I’m describing Lamenting Satanas’ 2024 release, Scorn.
Bringing brutality, and unrelenting riffs that musically range stylistically from the sounds of Watain all the way through to I don’t know what, to Syphoned? One minute you’re being blasted with black metal and blastbeats only for the next to end up in a riff fest that only adds to the sound and helps to ensure Lamenting Satanas have a style that is unique to themselves.
It’s controversial, but I’ll say it, few American black metal bands have captured the essence of chaos, devotion, and sheer sonic extremity like Lamenting Satanas has. Hailing from America… somewhere, the band have spent the last few years festering unholy sounds which it now, thanks to 2024’s Scorn, is ready to carve a path through the scene, both at home and abroad.
If you’ve not heard Lamenting Satanas already, you’re going to. Bands releasing this calibre of music are only going in one direction, and that’s to the top. Blending raw aggression with technicality and a melodic atmosphere, Lamenting Satanas have created a profound spiritual connection to the dark forces they invoke. Lamenting Satanas’ music is more than just a barrage of blast beats and tremolo riffs: it is an immersive experience, drenched in fire, blood, and the uncompromising essence of true black metal.
Lamenting Satanas are clear in their commitment to pushing the boundaries of extremity while staying true to their vision. Today, we sit down with II, where we will explore the sounds, the mystery, and what the future holds for LS.
Let’s get into it!
(II – Lamenting Satanas Interview – March 2025, by D)
Let’s start at the beginning, as Lamenting Satanas is surrounded by mystery. Meaning, very little is known other than interpretations of others, so, in your own words, what is Lamenting Satanas, and how did this all come about?
Lamenting Satanas started as a passion project between myself (II) and I in 2019 after a long period of inactivity from any of our former musical projects, we decided to pursue a fresh new sound under an ego-less mask of anonymity. We wanted to form a band where we wrote and recorded music that we, ourselves, enjoyed listening to, that may not push the boundaries of technically but does not compromise creativity to fit into any particular label. So to answer your question more directly, Lamenting Satanas is the music represented and nothing else.
It’s clear that anonymity is a key theme for the band, so I’m not going to ask anything too revealing, but one thing I am curious – where in America is the band from?
We all reside in the east coast of the US.
What or who would you say have been some of your biggest influences or the inspiration behind your music?
The biggest inspiration for our music stems from the second wave of black metal which has ultimately became the base for our music but speaking introspectively, our own personal sound takes influences from anything, including European Folk, Funeral Doom, Dark Ambient, Thrash and Melodic Death Metal.
How does the songwriting process look for L.S.? I hear a good mix of styles, so I’m always curious if there’s a main songwriter or if it’s more of a group effort? Also, how long did Scorn take to complete? It is a very polished and complete sounding album, I feel like this album must have been cooking for a while?
For the most part, the songs on Scorn are written by myself and III. We typically bounce off each others riffs until something cohesive begins to form. With the exception of Ulv, Flesh Harvester and The Beast which were all written prior to III and IV’s involvement, that would be how all of our songs have been written. The songwriting portion of Scorn was completed in 2020 but we added layers and rerecorded portions of all of our songs and developed multiple “final mixes” and “final masters” until we decided to finally unveil Lamenting Satanas in 2024.
Following on from that, what equipment do you use for your sounds, and what equipment would you like to add to your arsenal moving forward?
I used a BC Rich Mockingbird Extreme for almost all my tracks on Scorn with the exception of The Satanist where I used a D’angelico Deluxe Bedford. III uses a Gibson Les Paul Studio and IV uses an Ernie Ball Music Man Stingray live and on all recordings. Our recorded sound is crafted in an older version of Line 6 Pod Farm and our preferred DAW is protools using mostly stock plugins. My live rig is a Line 6 HX Stomp XL and an Orange Super Crush head going through a nameless 4×12 with Eminence speakers. I also run a Boss HM2 and a Lone Wolf Audio Eight Ball EQ pedal on my board along with the HX stomp. III runs through the red channel of his Peavey 6505+ head into a Peavey 4×12 and IV uses strictly Mark Bass heads and Cabinets. We also used a Casio CDP-S350 electric piano for any synth or piano sounds as well as stacking multiple reverbs on guitar leads to act as an effect. All sounds have background leads recorded on a Gretsch G5422G-12 Hollowbody 12-String electric guitar. Our second release will reveal a lot of other instruments and sounds that we’ve been experimenting with but I’ll let that be a surprise for the next album.
We like the esoteric and the occult over here. What is one of life’s mysteries that fascinates you?
Life itself is a mystery and the concept of beginning and end have always crept into my head. How nonexistence could even exist. It used to scare me but now it fascinates me and drives my imagination.
We also like esoteric literature, is there anything you would recommend your listeners to read to get to better understand the philosophy or mantra behind Lamenting Satanas’ music?
Our philosophy and overall lyrical content typically revolve around concepts of horror and mythology, things that may correlate to the concepts found in books with similar content. Our writing isn’t directly influenced by any particular novel but I’m certain there are plenty of works available in the realms of horror and ancient mythological content.
Personally, I think, at least in the moment I’m writing this, that Messiah of Filth is my favourite song from Scorn. I’m curious, which of the songs is your favourite to play? Or, if none in particular, which of the songs has the most meaning for you personally?
Ulv has a lot of meaning to me personally because it was the first song written for Scorn, that song was written and recorded before Lamenting Satanas even had a name. My personal favorite song to play is The Witch, the riffs flow very easily into each other and it’s just a fun song to play.
What does 2025 look like for Lamenting Satanas? Any plans?
We will be releasing our second album this year and although we can’t say much more, we do have some future collaborations that we’re very excited about. We’ve also began the writing process for many future albums.
I always like to see all artists involved getting their praises, so I’ve got to ask, who designed that excellent logo of yours? And what about the Scorn album art? There was nothing about this release that was substandard, honestly, from the concept, music, artwork, logo, everything has been of the highest quality. Everyone involved deserves a moment of appreciation for this one!
Our logo was drawn by Maxwell Aston, an artist that I’ve worked with many times in the past and who has always impressed me with his ability to capture the sound of the music in the form of imagery. The album art is actually a piece from 1830 by an artist named Karl Bryullov called “The Last Day of Pompeii”. I simply did the editing and layout.
Outside of America, who has been the most receptive to your music? Which countries have shown the most appreciation for your work so far?
We’ve received a lot of support from Norway, Finland, Italy, Brazil, Germany, The United Kingdom and Mexico. We truly appreciate everyone who’s streamed or purchased our music.
Lastly, I always like to know about music the artists respect from their local scenes. Now, depending on how you answered the second question kind of dictates how I ask this final question – but who are some of the bands that we should be listening to? (Note: we’re really looking for smaller, obscure bands here – who are the small bands you think deserve some respect or a little more recognition.)
When it comes to bands and artists that we feel could use a lot more recognition, I’d definitely like to shout out Wrath of Logarius (Black Metal), Ghost of Agony (Death Metal), With All Disrespect (Deathcore), Monochromatic Black (Deathcore), Misanthropæ (Blackened Grindcore), Avertia (Black Metal), Luna Mortuus (Depressive Black Metal), Cult of the Moon (Melodic Black Metal), Mafic Pulse (Instrumental Black Metal Influenced Hip Hop), Ozoth (Melodic Death/Doom Metal), Mystechron (Melodic Black/Death Metal), Oracle of Suffering (Death Metal), Helleborus (Symphonic Black Metal), We Are The End (Deathcore) and Funeral Dancer (Black ’n’ Roll).
Guys, thank you again for your time today. It has been greatly appreciated.
Is there anything you would like to say before we conclude today?
Our new album will be coming out this year. The date isn’t set in stone just yet but the mixing and mastering of the record has been completed since late 2024. We would also like to thank you for your review of Scorn and thank all our listeners and friends around the world.
Appreciate it, II.
BOSTKTB,
HTBLOF.
If you’ve been living under a rock and have not yet heard Lamenting Satanas’ Scorn, stop what you’re doing and rectify this mistake immediately. American black metal has been having a massive resurgence recently and the new wave of American black metal is absolutely crushing and unrelenting, and may be one of the hottest active black metal scenes going.
In our first interview back in 2021 we spoke to Alghol, another fine example of American black metal’s new face, so if you’re looking for a bit more from that side of the Atlantic, feel free to read that next!
Lamenting Satanas Links:
Mithraic Magazine 
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