Now Diabolical [Enhanced]

Satyricon | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 26, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Label: Century Media
• ASIN: B000FBFSV0
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,383 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Satyricon's first full-length album release in four years. Includes the bonus track 'Storm (Of The Destroyer)'. Roadrunner. 2006. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fast or slow, it matters not, June 9, 2006

By 

Dusan Jovsic (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Now, Diabolical (Audio CD)

I know, I know... Roadrunner Records, is obviously their most commercial move so far, I cannot deny that, but after all the quality of the songs is what actually matters. And being on RR will definitely bring them wider audience (if that was their aim). I mean they were invited to join the Ozzfest Tour this summer but I believe Satyr said no. So much about selling out.
Now back to review...
"Now, Diabolical" in my opinion is more rock'n'roll continuance of their previous "Volcano", but with stronger black metal elements. Album starts with two great "intothepith" headbangers "Diabolical Now" & "K.I.N.G.", and than rolls over with songs that seem to have been brought on the waves of "Nemesis Divina" just slower on a tempo. Satyrs vocals are crisp and clear, and still so evil.
If type of old school black metal is your prefered style, go ahead and buy this album. If you want something faster, "Dark Medevial Times" like, more progressive and with new ideas, I'm afraid you will get out dissapointed. Maybe new Kampfar or Enslaved "Ruun" (which is definitely the most progressive black metal release of 2006) is what you're looking for.
My favorite songs are: "To the Mountains", "Delirium", "K.I.N.G." and "Pentagram Burns"

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If THIS is black metal, I'm sold., June 10, 2008

By 

bombedzombie (PSL, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Now Diabolical (Audio CD)

I'm sure it isn't. I'm sure Satyircon are being disowned by their old school, old style faithful for sounding like this, and being called genre taitors or something... and I don't care. I don't care if this is the Britney of Black metal, I like it.

Buzzsaw guitars, reefed up in your face. Pounding and pummeling drums. Non-existent bass (this IS metal... what's the bass player for anyway? Just another guy to split the checks with... forget him :P You want bass, go listen to Primus). Darth Vader with throat cancer rasps of pure evil... and the lyrics are text book evil. I can't take them seriously (who could?), but ooohhh, that SOUND!

This album just rages and GROOVES (blasphemey for black metal fans, I'm sure)... check out the single "K.I.N.G."... could be the soundtrack for a dark haired, tattooed stripper's spotlight dance, couldn't it? And that production... Yeah... I'm sure fans of old school Immortal, Burzum, Bathory, Venom, Celtic Frost, and Mayhem absolutely HATE this.

It's the Motley Crue of 2000's black metal, and it's just plain good. So sue me.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Different isn't always bad, August 31, 2006

By 

A. Stutheit "Teyad" (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Now Diabolical (Audio CD)

Since its inception, black metal has been pretty limited. There's old-school black metal like Venom, brutal bands like Dark Funeral, and there's atmospheric/melodic black metal like Dimmu Borgir and Old Man's Child. But that's pretty much it in black metal's variety department. Until now, that is.

When they released their first album in 1993, Satyricon were more-or-less a brutal black metal band (mostly thanks to drummer Frost's blast beat barrages). Boy, have they come a long way since then.

The band's sixth full length release, "Now, Diabolical," is about the closest you'll get to a "Black Album" in this genre. (It even begins with a riff which is almost identical to Metallica's "Enter Sandman"!) Granted, it's a move towards the mainstream (it's even tied with Dimmu Borgir's "Death Cult Armageddon" for the highest selling black metal album ever released) because it's far less brutal than Satyricon's older material. But it's also more unique, creative, and has more individually memorable tracks.

The songs are much more stripped-down and the tempos are greatly restrained. Frost is still the man behind the drums, but he's no longer pounding them with insane speed. He still thumps the skins profusely, but the record's production (and occasionally, as in "To The Mountains," melodic guitar parts) hold them down and prevent them from becoming dominate. Add a bunch of groovey guitar leads and a sporadically audible bass note and you have Satyricon's new sound. The only old-school characteristics that remain here are Satyr's high, snarly/raspy yet still intelligible vocals, and his none-too-subtle (or nice) lyrics (i.e. "We want your head on a plate").

Some of the songs become kind of repetitive and are overly long, but suffice to say, every track here is a keeper. "K.I.N.G." is one particularly catchy number with slowly thumping drums and a guitar lead you just might be tempted to hum along to. "A New Enemy," possibly the record's best cut, begins with a very fast rhythm, but it stops on a dime when a slow tempo change kicks in and tribal drums and other background noise are adopted. Similarly, "The Rite Of War Cross" opens with fast, lurching guitar hooks and propulsive drumming and segues into a section with French horns and soft strings. "Delirium" has a catchy, chugging riff and equally as catchy, stop-start percussion, but the song's main highlight is its very pretty and ambient (almost piano-like) strings. The only straight brutal moment to be found on the album is the closer, "Storm (Of The Destroyer)," which is surprising in its heaviness and is backed by scorching riffs and Frost's relentless double bass hammering.

There is a slight chance that Satyricon changed their sound for this album only, and are planning on going back to their brutal roots for most of their future recordings. But the more likely choice is that the band are trying to more-or-less redefine themselves and will continue in this vein in the future. If that's the case, you should get used to that fact and realize that this sound is even an improvement over their previous ones. "Now, Diabolical" is one of the most streamlined and controversial releases since Metallica's aforementioned disc, 1991's "Black Album," and it thus seems tailor made for diehard fans to yell "sell-out" at. However, those who leave the nitpicking to the black metal purists will find this record is equally as powerful, memorable, and offensive as the band's early stuff, but it also simultaneously manages to be far more innovative.