Pulverised Records

Fourteen years between albums is a long time for any band. It's especially a long time when it's only the band's second album. The Black's first album, the deathly dark The Priest of Satan, was a surprisingly awesome album released in 1994 that, to my knowledge, didn't get much recognition. To this day it seems to have somehow been all but forgotten by many, though there are the few who remember it and still play it. I've got it somewhere, but haven't listened to it in literally probably 6 or more years, so comparisions between that album and the new one will not be made as I've forgotten everything important about it except that I was impressed by it.

When finding that The Black had released a second album after 14 years of who-knows-what, I was interested. I didn't know if I should expect another impressive ass kicking, or be generally skeptical of a band that, as far as I knew, had either been broken up for many years and decided to reform, or had just been lazy for 14 years.

Alongside Death immediately opens with a violent massacre of a track called "On the Descent to Hell" that literally sounds about as horrendous as one might imagine a descent to Hell would sound, with blasting speed and deathlike screams announcing murder and damnation, and filthy guitars right underneath. It's a short and to-the-point track, the shortest on the album at under two minutes, but it gets a lot done in that time. In my case, it left me psyched and begging for more.

Koch Records

In the heyday of Norwegian black metal Satyricon were in the upper ranks of legendary artists, a position shared by bands such as Darkthrone, Burzum, Gorgoroth, Emperor, Ulver, Enslaved and a few others. The first three Satyricon albums, with their epic and unmatched atmospheres of dark, mist-filled night time forests of evil, forbidding mountain fortresses and medieval madness layered by powerful riffs, haunting auras of keyboards, and the occassional folk passage, with the elemental cursed demonic shrieks and rasps of Satyr and thunder of Frost, will always be black metal classics, and some of my personal favorites. With each album they managed to tread away from the beaten path, develop their own unique sound, and all while creating something unforgettable, untouchable, and eternally... magical. Yes, I said magical. It's a very sinister form of magic, but magic nonetheless.

Toward the end of the 90's Satyricon's sound had evolved into something very different than what originally drew in the diehard fans. Well, to be entirely honest, the sound of Satyricon (before they were known as Satyricon) used to be death metal in a style similar to Carcass. But as Satyr joined and others left, they set their sights in a very intentionally black metal direction. Shortly after Nemesis Divina, heralded by many as Satyricon's crowning achievement, the band released two perplexing EPs which were a combination of covers, live songs, remixes, and a few originals. While some of this material was straight forward punishing black metal, other tracks suggested a brave new direction for the band...