Cold rock formations being bitten by acid rain for ages, burst in seconds into fragments by hellish lava streams. Hot steam veils and black clouds of burned vegetation hinder your vision. Black lava slowly and sticky finds it way down the mountainside, consuming everything in its path… the story continues. Having arrived in cultivated and populated regions, the lava masses march on in decreasing pace. With that postponed devastation becoming ever more threatening to mankind…

Satyricon continues to walk the ‘groovy’ midtempo black metal path it chose with its “Volcano” album. Biting vocals spit vomit, while continuous low tuned and slow-paced guitar riffs, sounding a bit like US death metal from the nineties, create a full, doomy and sometimes majestic atmosphere. The music is somehow both catching and very relaxing. The fourth song on “Now, Diabolical” is an easy listening ‘rock’ song. Caused by clean vocals, it sounds like for example Type 0 Negative, being far away from the melodious black metal Satyricon played at the beginning of its career.

The album was mixed by Mike Fraser, who also worked with AC/DC, The Scorpions and Aerosmith and produced by Satyr himself.

Satyricon, consisting forever of Satyr (Vocals, Bass, Guitars, Keyboards) and Frost (Drums), is one of the older Norwegian black metalbands. Debuting with “Dark Medieval Times” (1993) and continuing with “The Shadowthrone” (1994) and “Nemesis Divina” (1996), Satyricon played highly melodic black metal. With that, the band changed its style severely and “Rebel Extravaganza” was recorded in 1999, an album not comparable to the earlier or later works, being whipping and fast paced. Another abrupt change in style happened in 2002 with the production of the above named album “Volcano”. With “Now, Diabolical”, a more rock-like album is produced, though still in the vein of “Volcano”.

“Now, Diabolical” can be described as heavy rock music with some black and death metal elements. It has a high relaxation-factor and is the right music for a late night after some heavy drinking and/or to fall asleep with.