Clouds Taste Satanic – Birmingham 2024

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · April 14, 2025

Clouds Taste Satanic are a post metal doom / stoner rock/ psychedelic instrumental band from New York. The quartet formed in 2013 and have released ten full length albums so far, including: 2014’s To Sleep Beyond the Earth, 2015’s Your Doom Has Come, 2016’s Dawn of The Satanic Age, 2017’s The Glitter of Infinite Hell, 2019’s Evil Eye, 2019’s Second Sight, 2021’s Cloud Covered, 2023’s Tales Of Demonic Possession, 2024’s 79 A.E., and their latest 2025’s Birmingham 2024. They also released a Christmas EP– 2023’s All I Want for Christmas Is Your Soul, a single- 2020’s Funeral For A Friend, and a compilation- 2021’s The Satanic Singles Series. The current lineup of Clouds Taste Satanic is: Steve Scavuzzo on guitar, Brian Bauhs on guitar, Greg Acampora on drums, and Rob Halstead on bass. Their latest album, Birmingham 2024 was released on February 7th 2025. The press release for the album states: “Birmingham 2024 is the first in a series of “Live in Studio” Clouds Taste Satanic albums. Recorded at Hellfire Studios in Birmingham UK in May of 2024, this is a no overdub document of the bands set list while on tour in Europe that year.” The album contains four tracks at forty seven minutes long.

I have to regretfully admit that this is my first encounter hearing Clouds Taste Satanic. Being a fan of heavy instrumental rock music, this is probably considered blasphemy for fans of this genre. For whatever reason, this band has slipped under my radar for all of these years. I have heard about them by name for quite some time but never bothered to check them out. It seems like each country has their “it” band for exceptional instrumental rock. For example, Switzerland has Monkey3, Denmark has Causa Sui, 35007 was from The Netherlands, France has ÖfÖ Am, Heavy Trip are ruling Canada, new sensation IKITAN are from Italy, The United Kingdom has Motorik Road Trip, and Germany has My Sleeping Karma, Rotor, and the latest greats of Icarus Burns, among others. The United States has some killers like Pelican, Yawning Man, Earthless, and Russian Circles, and the late great Karma To Burn (R.I.P.) However, I am now thinking that Clouds Taste Satanic are the “it” band for heavy instrumental rock in this country. I don’t know, but upon repeated listens to Birmingham 2024, there is something pretty magical and amazing about these tracks. I realize that I am strictly judging them from this one release, and they have ten plus albums to dive into. But, the fact that this is recorded live in the studio in one day, tells me a lot about what this band is capable of producing when given the to time and production quality.

Birmingham, England is the birthplace for heavy metal and doom from the home town heroes and the gods of heavy rock, Black Sabbath. Clouds Taste Satanic have delivered a mammoth performance and a heaping of heavy psychedelic doom that integrates many different sounds and effects. The first track “Collision (Part III)” begins with thunderous drumming and a heavy thumping bass line. The eerie feedback of the guitars and subtle rhythms build into the song with patience and conviction. Then the riff crushes into a sludgy and heavy rocking doom ensemble. The track was taken from their 2024 album 79 A.E., utilizing just part of the whole song, lasting nearly six minutes. The original track is almost twenty two minutes long. I really like the choice of this to start off the album. It builds up nicely and then erupts into a riff heavy monster. The bass breaks in the middle of the track are great, as are the accents and fluid groove to the song.

The second track was also taken from the 79 A.E. record and is called “Reclamation (Parts IV-IX)”. The original is another long played out track, over twenty one and a half minutes long. This version strips it down to about thirteen and a half minutes. The song begins with some fret frenzied bass rumblings that diverge into a heavy colossal of sounds with a big entry. When the guitar starts the main riff, the mega build up is a devastating pounding of drums, airy sounds, and then double enhanced guitar riffing. The music quickly shifts into some interesting heavy psych sounds and rocking rhythms. The flow of the riffs into each new section is flawless and tight. The sound quality of this recording is superb! Each instrument is mixed precisely and each one adds a striking dynamic to the songs. The drum sound is especially hulking and dense. Clouds Taste Satanic glides each tone effortlessly into the next and will often drift from head tripping cosmic psychedelic music to a barrage of crushing doom and stoner elegance.

The third track is called “Pagan Worship” and is from 2019’s Evil Eye album. The song has a harrowing dose of haunting doom at the start. It picks up thereafter in a riff rocking segway before returning to the plodding menace of doom metal dissonance. The song takes on an eerie tone shift and afflicts some poignant and soul-stirring sounds. The melody is evocative and almost ghostly and sinister at different points. The music really speaks and paints a story with tones and melodies. Clouds Taste Satanic transcends each riff into an audio adventure of different moods and meanings. “Pagan Worship” is a musical religious experience in all of its eighteen and a half minute runtime.

Finally, the fourth and final track comes from the band’s second record, Your Doom Has Come. “Out Of The Abyss” closes out these set of songs with a nine and a half minute mastodon of doom. The song has a chuggy metallic rhythm that escalates into psych rock and beyond. Midway into the track, the music pauses as the bass starts a new emergents of textured tones and mind altering melodies. The song makes its way seamlessly back to the main riff as it confidently fades out. Birmingham 2024 is a ridiculously great record that blew my mind. I wasn’t expecting the performance and sound quality of this to be so magnificent and majestic. If this is how Clouds Taste Satanic sounds like live, then my only question is, when is their next show?