Medieval Sorrow
White Line, Mirror & A Credit Card | Moscow , Russia | 05/05/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"You're about to take a ride of 45 minutes to the Medieval Epoch and feel the brilliantly created atmosphere of sorrow of these far away times, when children of North Nature, united with the forest and lakes, were violently, abruptly christianised. You can almost feel the souls screaming through the whole ride, which is that album...
Naturally, the album is very good. Stylically this is pure black metal, old-schooled (i.e., not based on image or some sh¤t like that, like some of mercenary "gothic"-looking heavy metal popular bands, but first of all based on a true SPIRIT), primitive as it may seem for a first time, but extremely beautiful in its Northern Atmosphere. Don't be mistaken, REAL black-metal is NOT all "screams and blast-beats"; listen to this album and you will understand why. Heavy riffs are going here perfectly well with medieval pipes and acoustic guitars."
A unfortunatly lesser known classic
Karl Haikara | Denver, Co. | 04/25/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Satyricon in 1993 released their first album, and it stands just behind their second, "The Shadowthrone" as being their best album. "Dark Medieval Times" is supposed to be dedicated to olden times, from the Viking Age to the Middle Ages, and has a suitably folk and olden feel to it. Very often Satyr will break down the black metal parts into acoustic folk sections, and other times the black metal parts will fade out to flutes and other folk instruments. The total feel is rough and dark and very medieval, so the band did their job.
The drums are pretty tribal, with tom hits which remind me of Joy Division circa-Closer, though with more of a dark and ferocious pagan feel, like Graveland. Also like Graveland, Satyricon use keyboards to an interesitng effect, meaning they use keyboards to bring folk melodies and pagan atmosphere to the music, making as great of a use of keyboards in Black Metal as Emperor on "in The nightside Eclipse".
The sound is a little rough, not as warm and clear as Shadowthrone, but with a more Darkthrone like production ethic. Meaning very heavily transitor distortion on the guitar and a strange echo sound, which is like Under a Funeral Moon by Darkthrone and also Hammerheart by Bathory.
The cover is pretty cool, reminding me of the artwork that was done for the Warhammer figurine board game. It shows a warrior/king in front of a castle, and perfectly displays the concept behind the record.
I have to suggest this album highly to any fan of early black metal, in particular Burzum, Graveland and very early Emperor and even Darkthrone (spiritual blood brothers to Satyricon). Buy this! (maybe not at amazon.com though I got the cd for 12 dollars at www.theendrecords.com)"
Its Masterpies what could be said more!
Aleksei Yampolski | FL USA | 09/16/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is really unique album. May I say the most majestic of them all. Not a lot of bands can come up with such a catchy songs here, dont think so, but there few out there, just got to get deeper. Anyway this would ranked in top 5 by black metal maniacs. Oh yea and avoid later material by Satyricon at all cost. hehe trust me."
Track Listings (7) - Disc #1