SATYRICON — The Shadowthrone (review)

SATYRICON — The Shadowthrone album cover Album · 1994 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"The Shadowthrone" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Norwegian black metal act Satyricon. The album was released through Moonfog Productions in September 1994. It´s the successor to "Dark Medieval Times" from 1993 and features the core duo lineup of Satyr (vocals, guitars, synths) and Frost (drums) plus new bassist/guitarist Samoth.

"The Shadowthrone" is kicked off with an angry sounding Satyr snarling "Kampen mot Gud og hvitekrist er igang!" a capella in the opening seconds of "Hvite Krists død" ("The Death of White Christ"). The English translation from the original Norwegian lyrics is "The Fight against God and White Christ has begun!", and seldom have I heard a more powerful and intense statement of intent or a more effectful opening to an album. You can agree or disagree with the statement, but it´s arguably a damn effective way of opening an album.

Stylistically the material on "The Shadowthrone" is a heavy epic type of black metal, with both slow, mid-paced, and blasting sections. Satyricon often use keyboards to create atmosphere, but the keyboards aren´t dominant in the soundscape. "The Shadowthrone" features 7 tracks and a total playing time of 49:04 minutes and it´s a relatively varied release. There are both lyrics in Norwegian and in English, and although Satyr predominantly snarls his way through the album with his raspy black metal style vocals, there are also choirs and chanting clean vocals on the album. Stylistically a few tracks stand out as different from the rest and that´s "Vikingland" ("Land of the Vikings") and the closing track "I en svart kiste". The former is a viking metal track and the latter is an ambient synth dominated track. Variation is often important on an album, but a track like "Vikingland" disrupts the flow of the album, and doesn´t really fit the atmosphere of the rest of the material. "I en svart kiste" doesn´t disrupt the album flow and works alright as a closing track, but it´s honestly a bit tedious.

"The Shadowthrone" features a time typical black metal sound production, where the bass is seldom audible in the mix and the guitars are noisy and searing. As far as 1990s black metal productions go it´s a decent sounding release. Upon conclusion "The Shadowthrone" is a good quality album by Satyricon. After the powerful opening to the album I expected a bit more though and the "Vikingland" track isn´t exactly a plus either, but a 3.5 star (70%) rating is still deserved.
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