SATYRICON — Rebel Extravaganza (review)

SATYRICON — Rebel Extravaganza album cover Album · 1999 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Rebel Extravaganza" is the 4th full-length studio album by Norwegian black metal act Satyricon. The album was released through Moonfog Productions in September 1999. It´s the successor to "Nemesis Divina" from 1996, which was a very successful release for Satyricon, considerably heightening their profile on the international black metal scene.

Following up a successful release is always a difficult task, and Satyricon chose to do the only right thing, which was to write and record a totally different sounding release to "Nemesis Divina (1996)". A "Nemesis Divina" number 2, would probably have pleased some fans of the band, but a release like that would always have been measured aganst its predecessor and would probably have been regarded the lesser release. With "Rebel Extravaganza", Satyricon have created a bleak, harsh, and cold sounding black metal release which is pretty unique sounding in their discography. Some people hear an industrial influence, but I suspect it´s the harshness and coldness of the sound production, which make people hear that, because the actual music does not feature industrial influences. This is dark, aggressive, and raw sounding black metal through and through. Definitely the band´s most harsh release up until then.

Most songs on the 10 track, 60:38 minutes long album are pretty long (two even exceeding the 10 minutes mark) and they are generally not easily accessible although all feature recognisable vers/chorus structures, but they also feature many other sections, which make most of them relatively challenging listening material. The word progressive will probably be misunderstood if used here, but I´ll risk it and call some of the material on "Rebel Extravaganza" progressive inclined. The almost 11 minutes long "Tied in Bronze Chains" which opens the album is for example quite the elaborate song, featuring many different sections.

Upon conclusion "Rebel Extravaganza" is a bold and quite adventurous black metal release by Satyricon and it´s overall a high quality album. It´s not through and through the most consistent release, and a few more memorable moments and tighter song structures could pretty surely have made for a more accessible and catchy listen. Satyricon went in the other direction on "Rebel Extravaganza", which is pretty much as uncompromising as they get, and there is a great charm to the harshness and savagery on display here, which can´t be denied. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.
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