PEKLA – Boogie With Satan

Dancing with the Devil

Heavy metal is alive and well in Lithuania, as Pekla has shown us again with their 4th studio album Boogie with Satan. The sound is reminiscent of early Motörhead, with  the solid growling performances by vocalist Mindaugas Jurkevičius taking us down Heavy Metal memory lane. The band plays excellent old school metal, and Boogie with Satan gives us a solid 34 minutes of tightly performed and written songs that leave us wanting more.

About the album

The album kicks off with “#rapidez” hitting you in the face at full speed in the style of Ace of Spades, and at under 3 minutes feels like the perfect start to this release. Guitar tones are excellent, and as we move to track #2 “Goddamn Suicide Zombies” we get a taste of the band’s sense of humor as well as their excellent songwriting abilities. “Scrollers” continues with more excellent Thrash as the band delivers high speed guitars and passionate vocals along with kick ass drums and bass. Overall, the mix is very tight, giving us a well produced album to bang our heads to.

Favorite Tracks

Every track on Boogie with Satan has something to offer, but personal favorites for this reviewer include the moody, broody track “The Game”.  I love the guitar work here, with it’s great chunky riffing and dark vocals we are reminded of older Megadeth from their glory days. The title track “Boogie with Satan” has a great Heavy Metal shuffle that’s makes you want to get up and mosh with the devil with it’s bluesy tones and themes. Another favorite “Swype Rite” chugs along, hooking us with cool choruses and catchy riffs from start to finish. The last track “…and Cut” gives us beautiful guitars from the melodic leads to the soft picking, and making for a perfect ending song to a very solid record.

Final Notes

This album feels like a blast from the past, which for me is a great thing as this is metal as I remember it back in the early days of thrash when the biggest argument was who ruled: Metallica or Megadeth. Now that Pekla are on my radar, I’ll be on the lookout for more videos and material as I think they are well worth the investment and time, and any thrash metal fan would be proud to add this album to their collection.

Lineup

Bass, Backing Vocals – Gytis Šimkevičius
Drums, Backing Vocals, Percussion – Justinas Jakubauskas
Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar – Rokas Girčius
Lead Vocals – Mindaugas Jurkevičius
Rhythm Guitar – Marius Godelis

Boogie with Satan – Tracklist

1. #rapidez
2. Goddamn Suicide Zombies
3. Scrollers
4. The Game
5. The Tube is Red
6. Boogie with Satan
7. The Stuff
8. School of Rock’n’Roll
9. Swype Rite
10. …and cut

Running time: 33:54