Band:	Satyricon
Album:	Nemesis Divina
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	April 22, 1996
A review by:	Sephiroth

01. The Dawn Of A New Age
02. Forhekset
03. Mother North
04. Du Som Hater Gud
05. Immortality Passion
06. Nemesis Divina
07. Transcendental Requiem Of Slaves

The peak of the 'sraditional? Black metal career of one of the most important and influential bands in the scene. In 1996 Satyr and Frost (helped for the guitars by Fenriz) released a concentrate of BM ideals, music and feelings.

?This is armaggeddon? Satyr scream at the beginning of the album. And his musical armaggedon is made by a tight, complex and melodic riffing, trademark of the band. Not ?pure? BM, not only full throttle madness, continuos blast beats and a dirt production but an intricated songwrting that privileges the time changing rather than the monotonous repetition of only one (Burzum-like) oppressive riff. In some parts, sudden changes of time let us hear a ?folk? melody, or a piano, or a xylophone.
Satyr's style is indeed carachterized by open, airy and layered compositions, prefectly capable to build up grim yet melodic riffing patterns, still keeping the ?evil? and cold feelings and create majestic atmospheres.

The main riff of ?Mother North?- a real anthem, probalbly one of the most representavie BM songs ever - is something of memorable, cold wind blowing furiously over the icy lands of the mother North.
The title track, on the other hand, is the anthem of the other main ideological element of Norwegian BM, the anger towards Christianity: is a shame that not everyone can understand the lyrics (in Norwegian), because this song is a real manifesto against it, about how it corrupt the northern lands through the words of a 21th century Viking like Satyr.
Quite important is to notice how the wonderfull instrumental ?Transcendental Requiem Of Slaves?- that closes the album - gives us some samples of how the new evolved style (through pseudo-industral noises and 'mechanical? riffs) of Satyricon will sound in the future.

There is not much more to say for an album able to wrote an important chapter af the BM movement, that closes one age of Satyricon's approach to BM and at the same time marks the beginning of the way of innovation that Satyr will mature throughout the following Ep and ?Intermezzo II? and will explode in all its controversity in the ?Rebel Extravaganza? album.