Satyricon
Nemesis Divina

THE REVIEW

The year was 1993 when the Satyricon embryo began to take shape, emerging from the underground, with a work destined to remain in the annals of extreme metal: the wicked "Dark Medieval Times". A record that combined a rotten, dark, and medieval feeling with the classic Norwegian black metal that had found its catharsis just two years earlier with the seminal "A blaze in the northern sky" by Darkthrone.

Just a year later, the infernal duo Satyr and Frost returned to inflict real damage with the epic "The Shadowthrone", an album that picked up the ideas from the previous work, reworking them and emphasizing the epic vein that characterized it, but without losing a shred of the wickedness that had made them known. It was when the name Satyricon began to circulate a bit among all the insiders (reviewers etc.) and the fanatics of the then flourishing movement True Norwegian Black Metal, that the album of definitive consecration arrived.

It was 1996 when the purest and most uncontaminated wickedness, hatred, and violence decided to transfigure into music and take on the name "Nemesis Divina" (in Italian "Divine Vengeance"). In that year, the most demonic duo of the moment wrote a page of abysmal importance in the history not only of Black but of the entire Bible of Sacred Metal.

A cascade of uncompromising misanthropic hatred, perpetrated in the 7 tracks of the album starting from the impressive "The Dawn Of A New Age", undoubtedly one of their best compositions ever. It takes just 30/40 seconds of this track to truly realize that Evil has decided to play with music: an emblematic keyboard interlude and then Satyr "wishes you a good listening" with the words "This is armageddon", after which, not even a second later, the blast beats and the apocalyptic and insanely fast double bass drum of the incredible Frost drag the listener directly into the blackest pits of Hell, like a fierce vortex.

Following is the majestic "Forhekseth", a song with a martial stride and pure old-style black metal outbursts that even surpass the peaks of the previous song. Survived the violence of the first two songs, one stands before the true masterpiece of the album: the sensational "Mother North", one of the greatest black metal songs as well as a monument of pagan pride and hatred towards Christians (for further information read the beautiful lyrics). The rest of the album remains at grand levels throughout its duration, how can we forget the engaging "Immortality Passion" or even the incredibly brutal title-track.

The notes of the concluding instrumental warn us that the Apocalypse is almost over...