Band:	Troll
Album:	Neo-Satanic Supremacy
Style:	Industrial black metal
Release date:	January 29, 2010
A review by:	KwonVerge

01. Til Helvete Med Alt
02. Alt For Satan
03. Gå Til Krig
04. Burn The Witch
05. Mørkets Skoger
06. Hvor Tåken Ligger Så Trist Og Grå
07. Neo-Satanic Supremacy
08. At The Gates Of Hell
09. Smertens Rike
10. The Age Of Satan

Well, if you don't know Troll, then you probably know Nagash (his mom used to call him Stian Arnesen), the bassist of Dimmu Borgir during the era they established their name in the symphonic/majestic black metal scene. Also, Mr. Nagash is Mr. Lex Icon (Covenant/The Kovenant), so, as you can see he's not that unknown, on the contrary, he knows the lesson by heart. As for Troll, this is his first band (birth year, 1992) that managed to release its debut album back in 1996, reaching 2001 with their third work. A huge amount of silence followed eversince, nearly a decade later and with a brand new line-up he resurrects Troll with Neo-Satanic Supremacy.

So, I bet you're curious concerning what to expect, yet don't be, I think you've already guessed correctly after reading the first paragraph and your third eye can't fool you. The recipe is as follows. Firstly you take the more fiery guitar passages of Dimmu Borgir's Enthrone Darkness Triumphant and Spiritual Black Dimensions and cut them into small pieces. Then you start boiling Covenant's diastric keyboard pulsars (Nexus Polaris) in a more ominous and psychotic aura along with Spiritual Black Dimensions' aesthetic. As the salt & pepper we add a pinch of the aforementioned band's debut album, In Times Before The Light, an ingredient that is apparent more as a feeling rather than in the song structure. Now that you have the main body ready, you blend them all together and light the hellfire at high temperature, something that works usually as a more aggressive and fierce guitar approach, mainly up-tempo moments that slow down a bit at times (something more vivid on the fabulous "Hvor Tåken Ligger Så Trist Og Grå") and a violent harmony amidst the instrumentation of the album.

Yes, it's true, something really worth-mentioning has to be the production and the fact that all instruments work really well together so that one doesn't surpass another (except probably for the bass lines that have a lurking yet pulsating role in the "background"). This means that you will definitely find the keyboards and orchestrations floating above the compositions (at times they even surrender), yet, they don't devour the sound of the guitars since they hold a more dynamic role, whereas the shrieking powerful vocals are somewhere inbetween, neither getting lost behind walls of sound nor being at the abusive front. As for the drumming, it just delivers the singal in the most appropriate way and all hell breaks loose, fire in the hole!

All in all, Neo-Satanic Supremacy is a very strong and pretty solid release blending together high velocities, aggression, storming melody and darkening ambiances. The album delivers the message without babbling, it is exactly the reflection in the mirror, ten compositions, 41 minutes, it could have been a small gem, but it's a decade late. If you miss those days (1997-1999), then you should definitely check this out, after all, Nagash wasn't on the watcher's stand, on the contrary, he was part of the rising machine back in the days.

And some words prologuing the end from the man himself:

"Through the fabric of the promised future aeons
I offer this suffering of my unwanted Father..."