SATYRICON - The Age of Nero

 

SATYRICON - The Age of Nero

Roadrunner Records

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I cannot believe a great album that got such poor ratings.  I think that one thing to notice is the atmosphere of the album.  It's quite grim gives you the aura of sheer darkness and dimness.  The music is phenomenal I mean the riffs are innovative and wholly original.  I liked this whole way through it.  They had some great songs they dished out.  The originality of the compositions are quite astonishing.  They totally kicked ass on here and the tempos were not very fast but groove laden.  The riffs seemed to be put together very well.  And the we fresh and new especially when black metal was still in its experimental phase.

I like the approach they took to their songwriting.  It was quite thought out and well composed.  The compositions were not at all quirky or sloppy.  They were well accurate and the vocals were cool as well.  This isn't an overly aggressive album, but it didn't need to be. For maybe that's the reason people sheered away from it because it wasn't fast enough therefore causing boredom.  That's my assessment.  But for me, I loved every minute of it.  I thought that it was a good concept to show that black metal (like old Immortal) can have a thrash metal element to it.  Especially Immortal, they are somewhat known for that.

Satyricon I never got into before I heard this album.  That's when I first took notice of them.  I thought "this band has a lot of offer the black metal community."  And I still think they do.  Even the negativity they receive they're (to me) one of the better known veterans of the genre.  Then among Darkthrone, Immortal, and Naglfar still are making quality music as well.  But on here, Satyricon takes a step in the experimenting with sounds I couldn't believe possible.  And I love that groove sound to them.  They're really attributed to that in this release the not so overly quick riffs though some songs they did up the tempo to.

Again, I liked this from start to finish.  There wasn't a dull song on here to me.  I think that critics needed to lighten up on the band and give them a chance for this style and approach.  They know what they're doing in the songwriting aspect.  And the production was quality.  Everything was well heard and mixed.  They didn't lag in any aspect of this here.  If you're new to black metal, this is a good one to check out and send support to the band by buying a physical CD.  This is good even if your preference is other genres because it has a mixture of sounds to it.  Show support for Satyricon and check out this one!

Ryan “Death8699” Fanucchi