The eponymous eighth studio album from Norway-based black metal confectioners
Satyricon, led by Satyr (Sigurd Wongraven) and Frost (Kjetil-Vidar Haraldstad), finds the chart-topping occult rockers moving even further away from the dissonant Wall of Sound wailing of more traditional black metal purveyors. Still brooding, bloody, and malevolent,
Satyricon can dole out atmosphere with the best of them, but hidden within the miasma are hooks that eschew the lo-fi approach of some of their contemporaries in favor of a more radio-friendly (in a sort of post-apocalyptic/year zero sort of way) approach that helped land the album at or near the top of almost every regional hard rock chart upon its release. ~ James Christopher Monger