Satyricon
The Forest is my Throne

THE REVIEW

The darkness. A cavernous terrifying, filthy, desecrating, blasphemous sound. A chilling necromantic sigh, a murky branching of sneaky hatred, a painful loss in the form of wounds that never heal. Composed in the fiery era of Norwegian black metal, "The Forest is my Throne" encapsulates its wildest essence, a model of indisputable pagan genuineness and desperately lost in a tormented love for origins obscured by the passage of the centuries.
Four tracks, three composed back in 1992 and one ("The night of the triumphator") later added in the reissue that Moonfog published several years later.

The opening track is introduced by a very dark intro, then unleashes into a whirlwind of venomous riffs, supported by a fast and suffocating rhythm section. Satyr's screams are shrill and evil while the riffing closely approaches the Darkthrone-Celtic Frost duo in the central and final part of the track. Cold chills run with "The Forest is my Throne," chilling in its powerful progression, malevolently slow and inspired by vengeful themes, alone in their sadness for atmospheres dramatically vanished. The deep guitar harmonies scratch mercilessly and take us to territories close to the immortal "A blaze in the Northern sky." "Min hyllest til vinterland" softens the malice of the previous ones, it is sweetly acoustic with the wind's roar perpetually in the background. It is a desolate, macabre ballad where Norwegian folk meets the dark feelings of an impending apocalypse, intense and dreamy. The final bonus track is instead a sonic assault in pure black-thrash style, a personal homage from Satyricon to the icons of black metal such as Bathory and Celtic Frost, the crushing riffing joins the infallible drumming of Frost while Satyr launches into a scorching vocal performance, truly desecrating and captivating in a whirlwind of infernal flames.

A precious demo, witnessing deliriums of sonic madness that will never return. A dive into the gloomy past of Norwegian black metal.