Dominions of Satyricon buy track 6. The King of the Shadowthrone buy track 7. Recorded earlier that year, it was both instantly recognisable as the product of the thriving Norwegian scene and as something wholly distinctive within that superficially restrictive musical framework.
Only eight months separate the creation of Dark Medieval Times and its successor, but the second Satyricon album showcased a huge evolutionary leap for its creators. Even in sonic terms, it stood apart from both tradition and trend, deftly encompassing both primitive, earthbound grit and a suffocating sense of otherworldly vastness. A monument to artistic militance and liberated creativity, Dark Medieval Times and The Shadowthrone are where this grand legacy began.
Contact Satyricon. Streaming and Download help. Report this album or account. If you like Satyricon, you may also like:. When I hear Exercises in futility, I feel mighty, indestructible, and for some reason, alive Fusarium. Album with very dark moments, Fusarium. Eternal Hails The Darkthronian calendar ended in You can hear it in the dark, primordial, Hellhammeresque drum production.
Yet for the Eternal Ones, time is frozen and infinite. Next year will also be And the year after that, stretching into infinity. In this timeline, Celtic Frost will never sell out, and you poseurs will never be born. Sir Talksalot. Mnemosynean by Katatonia. My black metal love keeps evoking me from time to time. The band is going to play gig within a week, but tickects were sold within hour.
I'm going to wait for next one in my coffin Marcin Wielewski. Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp. No matching results. Explore music. Get fresh music recommendations delivered to your inbox every Friday. The Shadowthrone by Satyricon. Frost turns in a solid foundation, though I wouldn't dub it his most impressive drumming by a long shot.
The vocals and lyrics also seem to be more cohesive and enduring than those of the first album, and of course the production is a step beyond in clarity and consistency. But honestly, this just wasn't and never will be one of the better Norwegian black metal albums of its era, and I'd place it alongside Gehenna's Second Spell or Dimmu Borgir's debut For All Tid in terms of lasting impact and total quality.
It lacks the screaming, nocturnal ambition of Emperor's opus and the infinite, raw appeal of a Burzum; The Shadowthrone just sort of meanders along, providing a good landscape for the imagination, but few of the ambitious characteristics located elsewhere in Satyricon's scene. I'm not going to beat a dead horse and cry "oh Satyricon sold out, blah blah blah".
The facts are the facts, and if they chose to move towards a more commercial style, then that's part of their evolution and I ain't losing sleep over it. What I can say is the early years of Satyricon did have four majestic cult releases that set a fire under the ass of many a metalhead, making arm and neck hairs stand on end and causing goose bumps aplenty. Yes, Satyricon has that effect on me every time I listen to them, especially "The Shadowthrone", which would be Satyricon's second full length.
Most will say "Nemesis Divina" is their best and I'll say it was their high point, but atmosphere-wise "The Shadowthrone" beats it by a mile or kilometer. In this review I will go by my favorite songs rather than the dreaded track by track.
First things first, the cover art is well-fitting and is simplistic in the fact that it pretty much describes "The Shadowthrone" by a picture of what appears to be a tree in a darkened forest and is on the back of the tray as well. A picture of Satyr taken by Fenriz on their mountain trip is on the back of the actual cover, inside is Samoth with a backdrop of ice-covered mountains, and Frost is decked out in corpse paint with a totally black background. The last page of the booklet is one of my all time favorite paintings my first is Darkthrone's "Transilvanian Hunger's" "Ferdasyn" of a dark forest at night, the purple sky reflecting off the water and a Viking overlooking all of this.
Why talk about all of this, you may ask? Well, the art is just as important to the music as the instruments are and the problem with a lot of "today's music" cliche is artists don't take enough pride in this alone.
Opening song "Hvite Krists Dod" is a akin to a blasting furnace with the fury contained therein. The icy coldness of Satyr's vocals, the frozen riffs played by both Satyr and Samoth who handles bass as well as guitar , and the thunderous blasts of Frost's drums make this track a great way to open "The Shadowthrone"; nothing else will do.
You really can hear the evolution take its course from where "Dark Medieval Times" ended and see why this alone makes "The Shadowthrone" a winner. The choir at the end of the song fits perfectly and doesn't sound corny, but dark and menacing.
Also, the grand piano synchronizes with the riff extremely well so much so that still to this day I haven't heard better. Here is where we really see Frost shine through as a talented skinsman that no lie shall I utter and the blasts on this song destroyed my speakers in my Sentra, seriously. This is a very catchy song and it may take you only one or two listens to memorize the lyrics word for word. It is a rather short song for Satyricon, but it makes up for length in sheer power.
Satyr's choir is present here just like "Hvite Krists Dod" and again is used sparingly yet enough to make an impact on the listener. Obviously "Vikingland" is Satyr's description of Norway and does have a very archaic feel to it. The point of these songs is to create pure Norwegian atmosphere and here it is definitely present. My next pick is the next track, "Dominions Of Satyricon", and is one of my favorite Satyricon songs ever. The synth alone here is powerful enough to stand by itself and the opening riff follows it on point.
The samples of wind also have an impact as well and again we witness the intensity of the fallen angel named Frost. This is one of the most epic songs by Satyricon and definitely the most epic on "The Shadowthrone".
A very memorable song indeed. Well, here we have it, one of the best funeral synth and black metal albums created and, in my opinion, Satyricon's best album ever. If you're new to their work and would like a starting point, then start with "The Shadowthrone" as each Satyricon album sounds different and is a progression of their evolution.
One of the many great Norwegian black metal releases anno , "The Shadowthrone" is a keeper. The thing is that in all cases, given the talent of the two members Satyr and Frost, Satyricon always manage to stand out, always.
The Shadowthrone begins with some surely not so kind words by Satyr, and what follows is a nice piece of Black Metal riffing with some Viking influences here and there. This and the darkness that the production values add make this album essential for any Norwegian Black Metal lover. The songs are long and have a lot of changes, and the speed is not pure blast beats, Satyr and Frost took their time to write and arrange each and every riff.
The piano moments are like ghostly and magic, they fly here and there and the overall result is great. As usual, Frost delivers an excellent job, and the vocals are splendid, fitting perfectly the mood of the album. Another thing that is worth checking is the work of the acoustic guitars also present in this album. They are not a constant in each and every song, but they are present in the correct moments. A special mention is the intermezzo in the song Woods to Eternity, beautiful moment.
In a few words, this album reflects all the quality that this duo has I know Samoth played bass, but I doubt he had something to do with the song writing for writing and playing Black Metals with some Viking moments. This is by no means the best effort that BM has to offer, even, is not Satyricon best, but is a nice listening, full of surprises made by two of the most talented musicians in the Norwegian scene. If you ask me, get this album right away!!! Ah, Satyr, you wide-eyed youth, hope setting your blackened heart a-patter as visions of a loving scene and nubile, busty wenches kneeling before you dance and whirl in your brain.
Did you imagine in , in all your wildest and most private cogitations, that you would soon discover the boons of cocaine and flashy cars? Did you dream of driving a Farari down the Autobahn under the smog-obscured stars, cigar clamped resolutely beneath your teeth as your older brother Fenriz sprawls in the passenger seat, giggling inanely after washing down the Ecstacy pills you gave him with some shots of well-aged Cognac? Were you excitedly writing letters to Varg Vikernes in his prison cell, telling him about all the great albums full of Odinist pride you were going to write, and about that hot makeup artist you just hired?
Did you actually manage to craft a good album during all that wild mental activity? While Satyr isn't here to answer the other questions posed above, he's left us some evidence among the baggies, condoms, fast-food wrappings, spoons, makeup kits and other detritus for me to take a stab at the last one. A good place to start might be to describe why "The Shadowthrone" is so obviously ahead of its predecessor, "Dark Medieval Times".
Let us be frank about this: Satyr is a terrible song-writer and always has been, but this blight was at its absolute worst on the debut, which admittedly has a certain charm but suffers from exuberantly pasted-together songs with no sense of cohesion or flow. It's the sort of slapdash construction that legions of metal fans often lambast Opeth for, but the Swedes at least have a heavy musical background from which to draw upon and even at their worst never really conveyed the immaturity and misplaced zeal that Satyr often did.
We should give him some leeway as he was obviously rather young and inexperienced, even by the time of his second album's release, but this problem never really went away entirely for him and perhaps the praise and the blow jobs got to his head and gave him something of a justification for resting on his laurels all these years. There is more speed on this record than could be found on the previous one, and sections are often drawn out to more natural lengths so that the music appears less spastic.
The acoustic guitars have been relegated to a couple of brief interludes on a mere two tracks, and what do you know, they sound a hell of a lot better, even though these are apparently played by Satyr this time and not by Samoth. The song is still a live favourite today, and one can see why, as it's clearly one of the band's strongest pieces. Satyr's voice is no longer the unhinged, barely-pubescent shriek of the debut, but has settled into the mid-range, somewhat dispassionate approach that he mostly still uses today.
I like a lot of the riffs in this song, and while I could definitely do without the cheesy synth and spoken interlude, the menacing simple riff accompanied by the tinklings of a grand piano near the end sounds really good, especially when considering what band it's coming from. The guitars have a really nice mid-range graininess to them and are very clear, and the drums are huge-sounding, especially those toms, which positively rumble forth with war-like bombast on a good sound system.
There's no doubt in my mind that, in terms of sound production, this album beats the much-acclaimed "Nemesis Divina" right from the first note. Things move along nicely for a bit but about half-way through the song something bad seems to happen to Satyr's brain and inexplicably everything stops being memorable and the piece meanders. The damn song is a few seconds shorter than the first track and yet it feels every bit as lengthy as it is possible to stretch out eight minutes in the mind of a listener.
The opening riff returns to close off the song at least, so it's not a total writing disaster. On the other hand, "Woods of Eternity" is one nice piece of Satyricon music The song's title conjures up some pretty hoky and overdone imagery to be honest, and ooooh boy, this is where everything really hits rock bottom, and I have trouble articulating just how utterly vapid this song turned out to be.
Is this supposed to be drinking party music? One jolly and mid-paced rudimentary folk riff, accompanied by Norwegian babble and Here though, it's a sort of dialogue between grim-voiced Satyr and layered, chorused Satyr, the latter being completely tone-deaf in the worst possible sense, so that even though all the voices are supposed to be singing the same melody, they are actually working against each other.
Then everything stops, we get some wind noises and grim-voiced prattle from Satyr, who is presumably angry because his raucous attempts at singing got him kicked out of the party he was attending and into a blizzard.
Aha, but there's another riff! This one is supposed to be majestic and, I guess, battle-hungry, and now the choir is making stupid "uh-uh-uh-uh" noises, which makes me think of that movie "Excalibur" where the drunken knight is pathetically trying to shag his woman while dressed in full battle armour.
The massive "Dominions of Satyricon" takes some steps toward returning to the grandeur of the first track. The gong makes a welcome re-appearance even if it follows some obnoxious synthesised orchestra-hit sounds, and there are some proud riffs here, including one that should be familiar to any black metal fan, that being the glorious triumphant centrepiece riff to Darkthrone's "The Pagan Winter".
I won't lambast Satyr for pilfering a riff from a superior band, because the two groups were clearly fairly "tight" and Satyr and Fenriz have worked on projects together and so on and clearly share inspiration. I will however criticise the stupid fade-out that makes you think the song is at an end before there's an ill-advised synth-only passage that consists of a few descending broken chords before the metal flops back down like the weighty thighs of a crusty old whore.
Ah, Satyr, you really are more at home making cock rock, aren't you? I'll add an extra point or to to the score for the ending synth piece, too, which is still poorly constructed, but hey, at least all the disparate parts are in the same key and the last patch Satyr uses is a grand-sounding pipe organ one. It's hard to fuck up majesty on a pipe organ and well, this is a pretty simple but picturesque final impression to leave on the listener.
I also can't be too hard on the album because it was one of my first black metal purchases, so there's a certain affectionate fondness for it in my heart that I can't allow for any other Satyricon recording, even "Dark Medieval Times", which I gladly gave away years ago. SO, there it is The best things I can really say about it is that the production is great, Frost's drumming easily gets the head nodding and great gods, that tom sound , and taken individually a lot of Satyr's riffs are suitably big and maybe even played with some conviction.
Nevertheless, music should be more than just a collection of melodies, and Satyricon are not constructing any kind of story or cinematic landscape with their songs, as, for example, Sigh might try and do. Actually, I find mid-period Sigh somewhat distasteful at times because the juxtapositions are simply too random and nonsensical, and that band are arguably verging on musical genius. Satyr, though, is just a cocky kid. The music seems more mature, hateful, and aggressive than past and future work of Satyricon.
Many would call this, including myself, their finest hour. This is soon followed by an explosion into grim black metal that will have you head banging until the acoustic breakdowns partway through, ending with chanting choirs.
Starting off with epic sounding guitars leading into a painful shriek from Satyr and then into full blown fast paced black metal. We get to hear Frost with his ferocious speed on this track as well. Woods To Eternity sounds similar to Dark Medieval Times in that it features a lot of acoustic guitars. In Vikingland we get to hear some more choirs in the form of Viking chants-awesome. The album becomes more epic and orchestral with the following two tracks and wraps up nicely with the instrumental I En Svart Kriste.
The atmosphere is just as important. Thankfully this is something that Satyricon have always been able to achieve better than most, if not all other bands of the genre. There is just something about the excellent musicianship that creates an aura of darkness while listening to the music.
The Shadowthrone is just one of those albums with amazing replay value. If you are a fan of black metal and do not already own The Shadowthrone by Satyricon, I cannot recommend more that you add it to your collection as soon as possible. This album is a progression from their debut. It's very much like that, with similar sound and some ideas added.
And I like it! It still has some things to show the listener, even if he doesn't care for the lyrics.
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