The first time I saw SATYRICON live was on the Dynamo-festival 1997, but as festivals are always a bit different and the band has obviously changed musicwise and in regard to their attitude, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. And the gig offered light and shadows…

The band came on stage with the intro from “Dark Medieval Times”, but then surprisingly not started with ‘Walk The Path Of Sorrow’, but with ‘Night Of The Triumphator’ from the split album with ENSLAVED, followed by ‘Angstridden’, a track from “Rebel Extravaganza” (I don’t have that album as I think it is one of the worst albums that ever came out of Norway so I cannot give you a songtitle), ‘Nemesis Divina’ and their single ‘Fuel For Hatred’. Then the band left the stage for whatever reason. Already now it was clear that this was not just another Black Metal gig. The sound was nearly perfect, wherever I stood the sound was clear, well-balanced, never too loud but always a punch in your face and I doubt that I ever have had such a good sound, besides a IRON MAIDEN gig or so, but this sound-engineer really should get specially paid for a job done near perfection. Then the band itself: Frost is alongside Trym and Hellhammer probably the best and most skilled drummer ever to emerge from Norway and what he did especially during older songs was hard to believe and should have put drummers watching this ashame. On this basis the rest of the band (obviously only rented for this tour as normally everything is done by Satyr) played the songs tight and without the slightest mistake. Satyr himself only did the vocals, wearing a white shirt with the Satyricon-logo (the same sort of thing that Ihsahn did already a couple of years ago…), corpsepaint etc. He was a good frontman, yet he sometimes appeared strange to me. I am not sure whether all he does is honest, but am I really to care when the gig itself is a great one? I do, but decide for yourself. After an intermezzo from tape, the band returned and continued with ‘Repined Bastard Nation’, ‘Forhekset’, ‘Possessed’, the bad ‘Filthgrinder’ and finally finally ‘Dominions Of Satyricon’. As you can see the emphasis of the gig lay far too much on “Volcano” and “Nemesis Divina”, leaving out their early masterpieces except for one song. Is this the way to treat your past? However, the band left after that song again to come back for one encore-song, the unavoidable and brilliant ‘Mother North’. I have heard from other persons who visited the tour in central Europe that SATYRICON played more encores and more older songs, so the fact that just about 150 (and very strange – better to say non-Metal) persons in Bristol visited this gig may support the fact that SATYRICON just played a raw version of their intended show. Sound, lights and the band itself were near perfection, the next time the setlist could be more varied, but I think a Satyricon-gig is really worth its money.

Ah, and before I forget, they were supported by KHOLD, the band didn’t have a soundcheck, didn’t care about getting some corpsepaint which they normally used during the tour, was boring and performed so unmotivated that I doubt they made many friends that gig. And I personally was really disappointed. Boring and uninspired… that is all I can say about KHOLD.

Nhashi