Review by ZeroSymbolic7188 for Mayhem (NOR) - De mysteriis dom Sathanas (1994)
This is it. Possibly the most famous Black Metal Album of all time. How big is it? Well, I teach in a place where the primary artists among my students are SadaBaby, SexyRed, TGrizzley, and other tons of Detroit based trap rap, but they know this album. Is it coasting off of controversey or is there something to it? Let's find out!
It's actually really damn good. The bands gorey history might get a decent audience in the door, but all of that stuff happened in the early 90's, we would not talk about it in high regard 30years later if there was no substance. It has a unique production that somehow satisfies both fans of polished production and the ultra-raw stuff. It's got the blast beats, the razorsharp tremelo picked guitars, and atmosphere for days. It also has Athila Csaer on the microphone, and he's a force of nature. He actually performed this whole album accompied only by a smalll string ensemble, you can find this on youtube, and it's worth seeking out. You even get audible basslines!
Every track is great here, a no-skips affair for the black metal crowd. It's all just very tight, diabolical in all the right ways, and though Sathanas is in the album title, it doesn't lean on explicit references to Satan and hell, or take cheapshots at Christianity. Instead of hearing about Satan explicity, you just feel him everywhere in this album, like he's in the corner of the room behind you the whole time. Lyrically you get poetic descriptions of sinister forces; a fog that moves through a village and kills all the trees in it's wake, contemplation and committment to suicide only to die unremarkably and unremembered, a ghost that haunts the icy forest forever following the freezing moon, etc.
It's all far more frightening than anything by the overtly satanic bands.
In medieval times certain intervals of music were prohibited because it was believed to summon satan. I don't believe in such a thing, but if it were possible to summon the dark lord by playing music this would be a good album to do it with.