This band plays hateful and aggressive Black Metal that could be compared for sure with early GORGOROTH's releases. It features a member of the mighty HORNA horde, what could be in itself a proof of the quality of SATANIC WARMASTER's Black Metal. Some riffs or synth parts may reveal some influences by GORGOROTH, GRAVELAND, DARKTHRONE, ISVIND or some other gods of BM but the final mix is a unique CD that I think is not far from the level reached by DARKTHRONE's "Transilvanian Hunger" and "Panzerfaust" ! Just listen to the 3rd song (called "The burning eyes of the werewolf"), this is just one of the best Black Metal song I ever heard, with its "ILDJARN-like" pace and its "DARKTHRONE-ian" riffs. Anyway, the vocals are probably the most intersting thing on that album : you can clearly feel the hatred of the singer (some say his screams are too close to EMPEROR's ones but I do not totally agree with that statement) on each song, or his desperate yells from the Finnish woods... My only regret : only the vinyl version (limited to 400 copies) contains the lyrics, whereas the CD (limited to 1000) presents a speech by the band, which reveals its dark vision of the underground rules... Don't let this masterpiece of Northern Black Metal be sold-out before you could get one...

9.5 / 10

© 2003 lord pesten