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Satyricon
Saturday, 16 September 2006
Islington academy, London, England
By Stefanos Zachariadis
Ah, SATYRICON. The band everyone loves to blame for turning commercial and mainstream. I guess that's because if you're a metal band (*especially* a black, power or doom metal band), and you happen to be able to come up with a great album (like SATYRICON did with "Nemesis Divina"), you'd better always and forever release the exact same type of music. Like, say, DARKTHRONE. The fans are so myopic they have zero tolerance for anything different than what they're used to.
It's the first time I had the opportunity to see this band. It's apparently the second time they grace my chosen city of residence. I've followed their progress quite closely. And while I've enjoyed their earliest albums, back when SATYRICON were just Satyr and Frost ("Nemesis Divina" is a masterpiece), I've also enjoyed their latest output (I think that "K.I.N.G." is a great song). So it was great to see the band play live at a sold out venue, especially when it was supported by INSOMNIUM and KEEP OF KALESSIN. I missed INSOMNIUM this time (though I had seen them 5 days ago supporting ENSLAVED - hey, two great black metal gigs in the same week?), but I did see KEEP OF KALESSIN which were remarkable. They are every bit as good and impressive live as they are on record. They're actually more impressive live - it's bind boggling how they manage to play at these speeds, and are still able to maintain a coherent and well structured sound. A sound that completely engulfs the listener. Great presence, great performance, shame about the short setlist. But while I really enjoyed "Armada", I'm not a KEEP OF KALESSIN expert so this is not a review about them. It's about SATYRICON....
At 8:30 or so, SATYRICON graced the stage. With a truly enormous drum set in front of a huge poster of "Now, Diabolical"'s cover art, black candles and a snake-shaped microphone stand (that was quite cheesy) Satyr, Frost, two guitarists, a drummer and a keyboard player started with "The Pentagram Burns". The crowd went completely insane. Satyr was constantly interacting with the crowd, trying to get us more excited, by comparing us with other crowds (like the German one), getting us to sing (1,2,3,4 KING! was very catchy); the atmosphere at times reminded me of a good old fashioned heavy metal show - it was just a lot of fun. I guess that will feed the "SATYRICON are sellouts crowd", but I disagree. Check out this setlist:
- The pentagram burns
- Dominions of Satyricon
- Diabolical Now
- Forhekset
- Walk The Path of Sorrow
- Supersonic Journey
- K.I.N.G.
- The Rite of Our Cross
- Repined Bastard Nation
- Fuel for Hatred
- 1st Encore: Mother North
- 2nd Encore: Raining Blood / Postmortem
"Forhekset". Memories came flooding back. "Mother North", united we stand. Tears to my eyes. A powerful performance, spanning SATYRICON's career perfectly. A concert that was so full of energy, it could tear the roof off the place. Impressive presence, great setlist, great sound. We were all in the Dominions of Satyricon. | | 
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