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Hard to believe it's been seven years since Satan's Host released the career defining Predating God, Parts 1 and 2, a work so grand and powerful it couldn't all be contained in one album. With a career spanning all the way back to 1977, they have always been the brainchild of Patrick Evil, whose underrated genius has seen the band through many phases from the rough and gritty Metal of their debut to their Black/Death period to the modern era where Harry Conklin returned to help make the band sound like nobody else out there. With their 11th album, This Legacy Will Never Die, there's no sign of him stopping any time soon.

In many ways, this is exactly what you would expect/want in a modern Satan's Host release: crunching, powerful riffs, uncompromisingly evil and heavy compositions that mix Trad, Black, Thrash, and Death Metal as they see fit, and the versatile, all-powerful voice of the Tyrant to energize it all like he's commanding the armies of Satan himself as they march forth from the gates of hell. One key difference is that many of the tracks on here, specifically "Deadman's Walk," "From the Dark," "Malediction," "Altars in Hell," "Warcry" and "Mysticum," all start out slow and work to build tension before picking up the pace to tear out your soul, an approach that reminds me of the later works of Iron Maiden, of all bands. Now, I happen to enjoy Maiden's later albums, but this does have the same problem they do in having songs that take too long to build up and end up being a bit stodgy. That's not to say these songs aren't any good, and closer "Mysticum" especially stands out by letting Conklin work in his softer range for the first time in years, but considering these tracks make up most of a 65+ minute album, they do tend to drag in spots, sometimes lacking the catchiness that really sells the band. This is still more than a worthy continuation of their excellent legacy, and any Satan's Host fan will mostly get what they want, but it can't hold a candle to their previous album.