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Rating: 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...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 The Dawn of a New Age (07:27)
"And I looked, And behold a pale horse:
And his name that sat on him was Death
And Hell followed with him. And power was given
Unto them over the fourth part of the earth,
To kill with sword, And with hunger, And with death,
And with the beasts of the earth".
And then again "I saw and beheld, a black horse;
And he that sat on him had a scythe; And a crown
Was given unto him and he went forth conquering, And to Conquer
And there was a great earthquake, And the sun became black
As sackcloth of hair, And the moon became as blood.
And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth,
Even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs,
When she is shaken of a mighty wind, And the heaven
Departed as a scroll when it is rolled together,
And every mountain and island were moved out of their Places."
Almighty mountains and rocks, I beg you fall on them.
For the great day of wrath is coming, And who shall be able to stand?
02 Forhekset (04:31)
Forhekset av tidenes vind, Besatt av Nattens kolde gufs
Under ravnsvart himmel de bedriver Blodskam og hor
Med skingrende stemmer de påkaller Dypets makter
I en sirkel bundet av Grimme visjoner
Båret av dyrets Glans, Omfavnet av dødens vinger
Av det dypeste hat i det sorteste av det mørke
I en eng av torner... Nå i fullmånens besettende lys
De nagler englene til jorden med sjel og kropp
Kaos hersker over de hvite domener
Profetier blir oppfylt
Jorden står i et hav av flammer
03 Mother North (06:25)
Mother North, How can they sleep while their beds are Burning?
Mother North, Your fields are bleeding
Memories... The invisible wounds
Pictures that enshrine your throne, Gone
A Future benighted still they are blind
Pigeonhearted beings of flesh and blood
Keeps closing their eyes for the dangers that Threat...Ourselves and our nature
And that is why
They all enrage me
Sometimes in the dead of the night I mesmerize my soul
Sights and visions prophecies and horror
They all come in one
Mother North, United we stand (Together we walk)
Phantom North, I'll be there when you hunt them down
04 Du som hater Gud (04:21)
Du som hater gud, og kristent liv
Føler hans nervær, som en bitter kreft
Her må det skjendes, og skjendes kvasst
Himmerikets enger, dynket i blod
Hater av gud
Og lyspesten
Se inn i guds lamme øyne
Så spytter de i hans åsyn
Slå i hjel hans ynkelige lam
Med klubbe
Gud med ditt og dine
Har du lagt mitt norgesrike, i ruiner
Fordumstiders staute skikk og bruk
Kvestet du med dine stygge ord
Nå skal du bort fra vår mark
05 Immortality Passion (08:23)
I am the beast in passionate pain
I am the grim being of the highlands
Of the other side...
I am winter when you freeze
I am the hammer and you are the anvil
Forever in warfare my heart is
With my passion of despair
Still though I was there when the hills were born
And when the wind blew for the first time
So there are reasons for my existence
Seems like I dwell in a circle
Somewhere in the Nordic Hemisphere
Where the howling winds rage
And the mountains are majestic
I can breathe and where there is
Human flesh I feel strangled
Open the gate to immortality
I stand proud awaiting the glory
Of a new morning...Darkness
06 Nemesis Divina (06:54)
Eder har gjort vaart rike raattent
eder har gjort vaart gull rustent
og flammene fra de veldige sletter er alt vi har aa minnes fra verdig
manns tid
Eder har bragt kvalmende lys i dragens hule
eder har malt kors paa hammer
og vi har siktet pilen paa menneskesønnens usle trone
Nemesis divina splinten i øyet paa jehova
Nemesis divina kniven i hjertet paa guds sønn
Eder har bragt elsk til fiende
Eder har gjort ravn til due Men det olme øyet er vendt mot eder og hevnens
klokke ringer
Eder er vitnesbyrd om brente broer og glemte sanger
Eder er barmhjertighetens fedre og milleniumspestens budbringere
Dog skal en dag naa komme da eder barn i tre skal henge
Nemesis divina splinten i øyet paa jehova
Nemesis divina kniven i hjertet paa guds sønn
For stridsmenn har naa hevet øksen og bespottelsens tegn er reist
Nemesis divina - for straffen maa komme
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Other reviews
By wwwhatemoornet
Mother North remains there on the pedestal, unmatched… just below is Forhekset.
Perhaps some of you even saw me... So what to use as a soundtrack for these delirious pilgrimages through streets whitened by the soft snow?
By Tepes
"‘This is Armageddon,’ says the singer, and immediately a vortex of tempestuous icy Norwegian evil storms blew out from the stereo speakers!"
"‘Nemesis Divina’ was a successful purchase, the cherry on the cake, the cheese on the macaroni, and why not, a thorn in the side."
By SeventhKing
"Nemesis Divina represents the purest and most devastating essence of what is defined as True Norwegian Black Metal."
"The seven acts that comprise it are true Nordic anthems, passionate, cruel yet at the same time veiled with melancholy for the awareness of the relentless passage of time."
