Satyricon: Nemesis Divina

Do you know that moment in the late night when you’re cruising the movie channels and just find the headline of an old cult film you’ve watched thousands of times, such as Blade Runner or The Matrix? Well it’s simply the right moment to open a bottle of beer and enjoy every frame of that movie: a feeling of security and unspeakable warmth wraps around your mind, because you know it won’t disappoint you or let you down. You know every single bit of that movie, but there’s nothing else you wanna do in that moment.

Well if you know that feeling, you’ll be able to imagine me listening to the reissue of “Nemesis Divina”. After twenty long years since the original release of the album, Napalm Records have taken the decision to get our summer colder than it could be by giving us this incredible gift. But wait … What could I possibly say about this album that hasn’t already been said before during those 20 years gone?!? The answer is simple and I see you’ve got it: NOTHING. Yes, nothing new, but I can look at that album with 2016 eyes and a more mature mindset, and collect feelings on a road which leads to 20 years ago.

If we all agree right now that “Nemesis Divina” is a milestone album within the Extreme Metal scene. This was not the case in ’96, when mixed reactions came from the magazines around the world. Some called them “Genius”, some found a way to call them “Cheaters”. When you are Satyr and your best friend is Frost, all the things you do can’t be classified in any standard and all that your eyes can see is so different from what is happening before our eyes. It’s so hard to explain, but if today “Nemesis Divina” sounds like a perfect Black Metal Manifesto, 20 years ago it was a freaking innovative piece of work, where our heroes introduced some modern elements perfectly blended into a tribal matrix. Listen to “Trascendental Requiem of Slaves”, with some industrial references and then consider we were in the Black Metal scene of ’96. Only 2 years before they released “Dark Medieval Times”, how could most of their fans feel? Satyricon have always been two steps ahead in the Black Metal scene, that’s the reason why I consider them the real kings. Anyway time is the perfect judge for everything and if today “Mother North” is still in Satyricon’s set list for live shows, we should easily understand why.

The presence in the album of some guests, such as Kveldulv (alias Nocturno Culto from Darkthrone) and Andrea Haugen (formerly Samoth’s wife and mastermind of the project Aghast) are all symbols of the fact that Satyricon have always been well respected by all their colleagues (or by most of them), and their attitude to innovation and to explore new worlds may be unanimously deemed today as one of the flames that kept Black Metal alive, behind the curtain made of buildings burned, vicious kills and a void rhetoric.

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