SATYRICON
Live At The Opera
(Napalm Records)
93:07min

When I first laid ears upon “Dark Medieval Times” back in the day, I was taken straight into the dark mysterious world of the Norwegian mountains and forests, that SATYRICON presented me for. My excitement continued with “The Shadowthrone”. “Nemesis Divina” didn’t latch onto me at first, it had some good songs, though I missed the overall atmosphere, as reeks through the two first albums and the “Forest Is My Throne” demo. “Rebel Extavaganza” was exciting, a new sound, dark and cold, industrial and harsh, though very energetic and intense. “Volcano” had some good songs, though I started to lose my interest in the band here. I missed the good old Black Metal antics. I have given most of the band’s newer releases a few spins, though haven’t been caught in the web since. Again, some bangers here and there, but the overall feel, that I fell for back in the days, wasn’t really to be found. I caught SATYRICON live in 2009, a quite good performance, the band knows how to put on a show, no doubt about that, but damn it was polished and rehearsed to the point. In 2013 the band did a performance at the Opera in Oslo, together with the 55-man strong Norwegian National Opera Chorus, a performance that was both filmed and recorded and released upon mankind in 2015. A performance that includes ‘Mother North’ as the only representative from the three first albums, which I find a damn shame, not only due to my affection for the albums, though also for the atmosphere the band and the choir creates on the newer material, it is really raising the bar a few notches. The song ‘To The Mountains’ from “Now, Diabolical” which has a little ancient SATYRICON feel to it, is enormous on this album… I can’t stop wondering how fantastic songs as ‘Walk The Path Of Sorrow’, ‘Dark Medieval Times’, The Dark Castle In The Deep Forest’, ‘In The Mist By The Hills’, ‘The King Of The Shadowthrone’, ‘Dominions Of Satyricon’ and ‘The Dawn Of A new Age’ would have sounded backed up by the fantastic choir. But well, we might get lucky as time passes by, who knows, besides Satyr? The concert delivered on these two discs are fantastic. SATYRICON has always been good at forcing intensity into their songs and backed by the mighty choir, many of the newer songs, which I find lacking the right atmosphere, get that mysterious, epic, grandiose atmosphere, that the band excels getting in to their music, especially in the dark and dusty past. Many of the newer songs, which didn’t catch me, get a total new life, just take ‘Den Siste’ from “The Age Of Nero” which is lifted up to magical status and becomes a SATYRICON song worthy of their past. “Live At The Opera” did revive my affection for SATYRICON and made me give all the good old songs a good spin, some of the newer albums did get a second chance as well, though they still didn’t really hit me. Though I have often returned to this live album, when feeling for some dark grandiose atmosphere and energy. Wander into the mighty forest: www.satyricon.no, https://satyricon.bandcamp.com, label contact: www.facebook.com/napalmrecords

Anders Peter Jørgensen

Anders Peter Jørgensen

Related reviews / interviews:
SATYRICON - Now, Diabolical (Mario Cubero)
SATYRICON - Volcano (Stefan Franke)
SATYRICON - Ten Horns - Ten Diadems (Frank Stöver)
SATYRICON - Interview (Deni Petrounova)

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