Review by Rexorcist for Satyricon - Dark Medieval Times (1994)

I think I may have made the right choice in choosing Satyricon to end my Metal Academy black metal challenge.  Their third album, Nemesis Divina, is the one I need to hear, and is considered their best album.  On top of which, there's the coincidence that the previous album I heard for this, Thorns, features the lead singer as a vocalist.  Now I say that they were the right choice because right from the getgo, they dive into the artistry, genre-bending and unpredictability I generally look for.

The lo-fi production in this instance helps the tremolos a lot, which is a bit of a breath of fresh air considering how many lo-fi debuts don't manage anything with the production.  These guys knew how to utilize it.  But softer and flute-driven areas, such as the ones in the title track, have no background noise whatsoever, so the abrupt switches are much more sudden and surprising.  The first couple tracks on the album are built on these kinds of shifts, but this is not to say that the band is simply showing off.  These songs are just as intriguing and melodic as they are poetic, so this works out for the better on a consistent basis.  Some exclusions, such as the folk interlude Min hyllest til vinterland, are a welcome break from it simply because the album already made a point of exploring the world of the North through various musical styles with black at the front.  As well, the next track is pure black metal, adding a faint amount of synths in the early days, but not enough to really count towards the extreme development of the symphonic black genre that Emperor pioneered.  And while the last two tracks largely go for the black metal aspects already previously established, the songwriting remains intriguing in their own ways.  I still prefer the first two tracks, however.

Satyricon's debut album proved that they already knew what they were doing on day one.  These guys were built for black metal, and if they're only gonna keep getting better from there for a while, I expect brilliant things from them.

94