Shadowthrone

Satyricon | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 7, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: The End Records
• ASIN: B000EF5MFY
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #238,185 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Sophomore album for Norwegian dark metal act who won best album in Terrorizer's 1999 reader's poll. Seven tracks including 'In the Mist by the Hills' and 'Woods to Eternity'. Standard jewelcase. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Satyricon's best release.., March 30, 2003

By 

en norsk kis (Ottestad, Norway) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SATYRICON THE SHADOWTHRONE (Audio CD)

This is raging, cold black metal, with a medieval touch of acoustic guitars and choirs. Very atmospheric...
Satyr's vocals have never topped the vocals he's got on this masterpiece. Grim, rasping and hateful, just like it should be.

"Hvite krists dod" is a black metal classic with its brilliant, straightforward lylics and killer riffs.
The amazing thing about Satyricon is that they use synth and acoustic guitars, but they still manage to maintain the brutal old school-feeling.

If you like this also try Ulver - Bergtatt
(It's even better!!)

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful......, April 13, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: SATYRICON THE SHADOWTHRONE (Audio CD)

"The Shadowthrone" is the 2nd chapter in Satyr's story of conquest. He's already conquered the dark castle in the deep forest and is now on a quest to gain control of the Shadowthrone, before he summons the powers of hell to conquer the world with.

This album is my favorite from Satyricon. It is an epic, monstrous piece of work. The Norwegian influences are also here. Out of all the band's albums, this is their most melodic and atmospheric (next to "Dark Medieval Times"). Ah yes, amazing Black Metal this is.

The record kicks off with "Hvite Krists Død", which starts off with a menacing growl for the first few seconds and kicks into a driving, pummeling rhythm. During the last couple minutes, you also hear Satyr and his army of gothic warriors singing Norwegian blasphemous chants as they march through the forest (Yes, Satyr actually SINGS in this album!). "In The Mist By The Hills", starts off with a cool guitar riff and slowly gets faster from there, until it finally kicks into a fast blast beat, where you can almost picture a battle in the dark forest.

"Woods To Eternity" is a very atmospheric song, which creates eerie atmospheric effects in the background over the ripping guitars and drums (as well as haunting acustic guitars). In "Vikingland", we hear Satyr shouting chants of war with a group of Vikings as they ride into battle through the forest (The choir is done by Satyr himself). Again, the lyrics are Norwegian. The ending even has Satyr moaning in a very deep, haunting, melodic tone.

"Dominions Of Satyricon" begins with the beatings of war drums and then kicks into a grooving beat with great guitars. You can almost picture Satyr marching into the domains with his army to reclaim the homeland, with the intense battles being illustrated in the faster parts (including the hyper-speed blast beats before the ending part). After the fight, Satyr summons the northern spirit to protect his lands while he goes to battle for the power of the Shadowthrone, and that's when "The King Of The Shadowthrone" kicks in (it's also my favorite song on the whole album). This is when he puts up a fight with the king of the throne to claim it for himself. When the beautiful folk guitar kicks in and Satyr says, "I am spirit, I am stone, and I am immortal", you know he has won the fight, and thus became the new king of the Shadowthrone.

Finally, the album closes with "I En Svart Kiste" (which translates to "In A Black Casket"). This is the most beautiful work Satyr has ever composed. Due to the name, it can be best described as a feunral theme. I personally think that the album would not be complete without it. There is not much in words that can describe it's gloomy, melancholic beauty.

Satyr's vocals are more similar to "Dark Medieval Times", but this is the only album from him so far that features melodic singing from him. It's quite beautiful and fits the atmosphere well, just as his raspy growl fits more intense parts. His guitar work (along with Samoth's) is also quite technical and fast here. Frost is AMAZING at the drums and percussion, as usual. It also helps to give the songs a more chaotic (when a battle is meant to be illustrated, that is) and atmospheric feel. The keyboards are also the best of all Satyr's works.

The production is good. The sound is a little thin ("Dark Medieval Times", despite the fact it has the worst production out of all Satyricon records, had a thicker sound), but it is still very listenable. The guitar is jagged, the bass is audible, and the drums are always there for the ears. The mixing is also near perfect.

The music itself is epic, well-crafted, dark, beautiful, and complex. Not dizzyingly complex like Dream Theater or Cradle of Filth, but complex none the less. There are strong Viking influences in this album, as well as a touch of Norwegian folk (especially in "The King of the Shadowthrone").

All in all, an AMAZING Black Metal piece no fan of the genre should be left without.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another brilliant release from Satyr and Frost, March 18, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Shadowthrone (Audio CD)

This is sometimes considered the quintessential Satyricon release (myself, I prefer Dark Medieval Times, but this album is a CLOSE second,) and it certainly is marvellous. And unlike Emperor, Satyricon were able to create a sevond full-length album that was more epic than the first, without being pompous and melo-dramatic. Where DMT was more folk/medieval, this album is conspicuously more Viking metall-ish. There is even a Viking metal song to be found on this disc (the aptly-titled "Vikingland") The musicianship is tighter on this release, and the song-writing is slightly less minimalistic (which some consider to be an improvement.) Satyr's vocals are also amazing, being very fierce and raspy, yet not overly so. Frost gives another astounding performance. There seems to be just slightly less of an emphasis on the use of the acoustic guitar on this album, as compared to DMT, and to regain the balance, there is a slightly higher use of keyboards, for ambience and atmosphere. Satyr even experiments a bit with some clean vocalled passages! And he conquers these quite well, too. Lyrically, this album follows the pattern of DMT, in that about half of the songs are written in English, and half in their native Norwegian (not sure if this is modern Norwegian or archaic Norwegian, though.)

Of particular note is perhaps Satyr's finest composition to date, the album closer "I En Svarte Kiste," which translates to something along the lines of "In the Black Casket." This track is an all-keyboard instrumental funeral dirge, and it is amazing. It begins with ambient synth lines, and then progresses to a keyboarded horn passage, and ends with several minutes of an organ passage. This track makes it imminently clear where Satyr would be heading with his side-project "Wongraven." Worth the cost of the album alone.

In short, this album, along with DMT, has helped greatly to define early-90's Norwegian black metal. Unfortunately, these releases have since been (unjustly) overshadowed by bands like Mayhem, Emperor, and Darkthrone, which are great bands in their own right, but I can't help but think their reputations have done more for them than their actual musical recordings. Either way, this album is essential for all bm fans, and even those non-BM fans looking for something a little different.