New self-titled album from Satyricon: continues the path of The Age of Nero with a mood of Volcano

The new self-titled album from Satyricon was released after five years of silence after The Age of Nero. What to expect from a self-titled album released after 5 years, a major change or a return to the past? Satyricon mostly follows the path of black’n roll started with Now, Diabolical and continued with The Age of Nero. All of the songs have a very uncomplicated, almost minimalist, structure with a few very simple riffs that are repeated in every song; a clear example of this can be the very beautiful intro “Voice of Shadows”.  Compared to The Age of Nero, Satyricon is characterized by slower rhythms; it can be said that Satyricon is a synthesis between the structural simplicity of The Age of Nero and the mood of Volcano.  Tremolo picking and blast beats, typical of black metal, have practically disappeared and appear only sporadically in "Walker Upon the Wind" and "The Infinity of Time and Space". Despite Satyricon’s continuous play to push the boundaries of their music, their latest album is not very innovative, and all in all not a turning point from the last previous releases. The only real innovation can be seen in "Phoenix", which experiments with a dark-rock voice on a metal music, even though such a concept is not a Satyricon’s invention. This song actually features Sivert Høyem, mainstream Norwegian rock singer and former singer of Madrugada, as a special guest on vocals. The riffing of this song is very soft and is based on a very melodic arpeggio that, except for the distortion, has nothing metal. The song is very beautiful with its dark, melodic and dreamy atmosphere, but it is not well integrated with the rest of the album and remains an episode.  What is worrying is that this song marks the highest point of the album and is the one that the listener remembers best at the end of the album, in addition to the beautiful intro. Perhaps this song is “The Dawn of a New Age” in the music of Satyricon?

As for the lyrics, only one song is in Norwegian, "Tro og kraft"; this is the real return to the past, because Satyricon has not written a text in Norwegian since the times of Nemesis Divina. The text has, not surprisingly, some of the bellicose aspects that characterized the texts of those years: “Vi tror deg, vi ser deg, marsjerer for deg / Templene brenner, det er dagry”. In the other texts we find the apocalyptic visions of a crumbled world, as in "Our World, It Rumbles Tonight", with mythological references, as in "Nocturnal Flare" and "Phoenix" itself.

Summarizing, Satyricon is a good album, even though one may expect something more from a band like Satyricon; they still play very well, but this album is a bit repetitive, with little variation, and is not very exciting, but maybe the real problem is that when listening to it you have to forget that Satyricon was once a great black metal band. On the other hand one has to appreciate their effort to find new expressive solutions.

Notes:
Satyricon was released throughout Europe on 9 September 2013, and released on 17 September 2013 in USA and Canada.  

Tracklist:
1. “Voice of Shadows” 2:36
2. “Tro og Kraft” 6:01
3. “Our World It Rumbles Tonight” 5:13
4. “Nocturnal Flare” 6:38
5. “Phoenix” 6:32
6. “Walker Upon the Wind” 4:48
7. “Nekrohaven” 3:12
8. “Ageless Northern Spirit” 4:44
9. “The Infinity of Time and Space” 7:48
10. “Natt” 3:44

Bonus tracks:
11. “Phoenix (Recording Session Rough Mix)” 6:32
12. “Our World, It Rumbles Tonight (Deeper Low Mix)” 5:07
13. “Natt (Wet Mix)” 3:34

Personnel:
Satyr - vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass
Frost - drums
Sivert Høyem - vocals on “Phoenix”

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Text by Herjann
herjann@unholyblackmetal.com