Satan's Bell

Satan's Bell is an album by KingCobraJFS, released through Deathbed Tapes on April 1st, 2022. The album is one of Cobra's better-known post-South Center releases, due in part to its Deathbed Tapes release, cassette run, and the fact that Josh promoted it heavily in his videos. It is also one of the clearest examples of Josh leaning fully into his self-concept as a dark gothic magician, Satanic rebel, and bell-obsessed clocktower warlock.

The album runs a little over an hour, with Josh himself describing it shortly before release as “an hour and eight minutes of original King Cobra music.” The Bandcamp listing gives nine tracks, totaling roughly 1:06:48 without accounting for any upload padding or spacing between songs.

Satan's Bell was produced during the Conquistador Age, after Josh's initial collaboration with Deathbed Tapes had already begun with Hell's Advocate. By this point, Deathbed had become the most legitimate-seeming outlet for Josh's music, offering his work through Bandcamp and physical cassette releases. This was a major step up from Josh simply uploading impossibly long GarageBand experiments to YouTube or TuneCore, and he clearly enjoyed having his music treated like a real underground release.

In an early update video titled Album update, Josh gave a shoutout to Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath and stated that he was working on Satan's Bell, originally planning to put eight songs on it. At that stage, he claimed five songs were already done:

The final release would expand to nine tracks. In a later night video, Josh announced that the album was complete and would be released that Friday. Since the Deathbed Tapes Bandcamp page lists the release date as April 1st, 2022, this announcement likely came in the final days of March 2022.

In the same video, Josh gave the album's track order aloud:

He then listed the tracks as Satan's Bell, Misery Loves Company, I Can't Change the World, the World Can't Change Me, King Cobra's Magic, Bell Tower Bashing, Hail Our Inner Power, Ring the Bells of Hell, Party in Hell, and Cobra's Strike.

Musically, Satan's Bell sits comfortably in Josh's established homemade experimental metal style: improvised guitar, loose song structures, spoken-word ranting, shouted vocals, gothic posturing, and very little concern for traditional rhythm or production polish. Deathbed Tapes tagged the album as experimental, harsh noise, harsh noise wall, industrial, noise, and power electronics, which is both technically generous and strangely accurate given the wall-of-sound qualities of Josh's music.

The album's themes are exactly what the title suggests: Satan, bells, magic, inner power, hell, rebellion against trolls, and Josh's general belief that one should reject organized religion and draw strength from oneself. In this sense, Satan's Bell pairs naturally with Religion, Magic, and The Cult of Cobra. It is not simply a Satan-themed album; it is a Satan-themed Cobra album, meaning the actual subject is usually Josh's self-image.

The two tracks featuring Sarah S., King Cobra's Magic and Cobra's Strike, stand out because outside collaboration is comparatively rare in Cobra's catalogue. Like many of his albums, however, the record's most important “collaborator” is still Josh's own mythology: the clock tower, his magic, the trolls, the bells, Satanic imagery, and the constant assertion that Cobra is not merely some YouTuber in an apartment, but a powerful dark gothic bad boy.

All music written by Joshua “KingCobraJFS” Saunders.

Satan's Bell received a cassette release through Deathbed Tapes. This was a major point of pride for Josh, who repeatedly promoted Deathbed's physical releases and treated the sale of tapes as proof that his music had an audience beyond trolls laughing at him. A short video titled 130 tapes shows Josh correcting himself after apparently thinking the album had sold out, stating that there were still 130 tapes left and that the album was available for purchase. The transcript renders his final line as “Satan Spill kicks ass,” almost certainly a transcription error for Satan's Bell kicks ass.

Discogs later catalogued cassette versions of the album, including a limited/autographed deluxe edition. This makes Satan's Bell one of the more collectible Cobra releases, especially among fans who treat Deathbed-era Cobra tapes as physical artifacts of the Cobraverse rather than purely musical releases.

As with all of Cobra's music, Satan's Bell was received in a mixed and highly ironic fashion. Fans of the Cobraverse generally do not listen to Josh's albums for conventional musicianship. They listen for the same reason they watch his food hacks, drink combos, and rant streams: because the result is bizarre, personal, unintentionally funny, and almost impossible to mistake for anyone else's work.

That said, Satan's Bell is among the more memorable Deathbed-era albums. Its title, theme, and cassette availability gave it a stronger identity than many of Josh's earlier long-form projects. The title track, Bell Tower Bashing, Ring the Bells of Hell, and Cobra's Strike all fit neatly into Josh's broader mythology of bells, Satanic self-empowerment, and dark magic. The presence of Sarah S. on two tracks also gives it at least some novelty compared to the purely solo records.

Critically, the album suffers from the usual Cobra problems: rough recording quality, wandering structure, limited instrumental ability, and long stretches that resemble a rant video with guitar underneath it. However, those flaws are also part of the appeal. Satan's Bell is not a good album in the traditional sense, but it is a very Cobra album: sincere, overlong, self-mythologizing, abrasive, accidentally funny, and weirdly committed to its own gothic premise.

Satan's Bell occupies a notable spot in Josh's discography because it captures him in one of his most self-assured creative modes. He was working with Deathbed Tapes, selling physical cassettes, and making music that leaned into his favorite personal symbols: Satan, bells, magic, trolls, and the clock tower. For Josh, this was not just an album; it was evidence that King Cobra JFS was a real underground musician with a real release and real fans buying tapes.

It also marks the bridge between the older experimental-metal Cobra albums and the later Deathbed Tapes period that would eventually include more structured releases like Blunt Wraps & Cobra Coils and Sinister Snakes. While later albums would become better known for rap experiments or more direct troll-focused songs, Satan's Bell remains one of the clearest statements of Josh's gothic warlock persona.

In short, Satan's Bell is an hour of the Boglim ringing the bells of Hell from a one-bedroom apartment in Casper, Wyoming. That's most definitely what's up.

1. Satan's Bell on Deathbed Tapes Bandcamp
2. King Cobra - Satan's Bell | Deathbed Tapes
3. night video - Josh announces Satan's Bell is finished and lists the track order.
4. Album update - Josh says Satan's Bell has five songs done.
5. 130 tapes - Josh corrects the tape availability and promotes the album.
6. KingCobraJFS | Satan's Bell | Released 2022 on Rumble.
7. Satan's Bell on Discogs