Review by Michael on May 21, 2024.

Vocalist Petri Lindroos and drummer Janne Parviainen from Ensiferum have a new battlefield with Satanic North. Of course because it is black metal business they don't appear with their real names but under some mysterious pseudonyms (IIT Caprae and Abyssir). Together with Skomorokh on the guitar and vocalist Von Occult they broke through the gates and stepped out of the darkness to spread hatred and blasphemy in the world (at least that's what is said in the press promo). This is a really high ambition, so we will see if they can do what they promised. And as you can clearly see in the name, they didn't start a hard rock band but do some really old-school black metal here.

Although they are from Finland, they sound more like old Immortal, Dark Funeral, The Abyss and all the Swedish and Norwegian fast played stuff from the 90s. Only in some tracks punky Impaled Nazarene shine through (maybe it depends on the vocals which remind me often of Mika Luttinen like in 'Behind The Inverted Cross' or the title track). The sound matches that decade, too. Drums are a little bit tinny but I guess this matches the sound. The most impacting albums on the guys were probably “Battles In The North” and “Blizzard Beasts” which isn't the worst choice. Lyrically you get the full satanic whole nine yards, no cliché is left out. Only here and there some tempo is taken out of the songs but mostly they blast through the ten blasphemous tracks. This is an amazing old-school black metal album you can fully enjoy. Their black metal is mostly reduced to fast blast beats and minimalistic riffing so that you can absolutely see the energy and hatred that comes from the ten songs. Nevertheless they keep the stuff they do very recognizable and never lose the melodic aspects in the songs. With 'Vultures' they have a catchy mid-tempo song (at least it is for the first almost two minutes) that spreads a slightly relaxed atmosphere and a very surprising change in their music. Just like Dark Funeral with 'Bloodfrozen' on “The Secret Of The Black Arts” – I remember that I woke up because of this slow song after falling asleep because of all the blast beats (and maybe the beers I had). But I guess that Satanic North cannot do slow for more than two minutes, so this also turns out to become a blast beat inferno.

Just like the band said: “we all have the same vision of black metal and this vision is: stop with all the mid-tempo stuff, let's bring back blast beats”. I would say that if you want your black metal frosty and without any trends, this debut is the right thing for you. Here everything works quite well and even the room temperature here sinks about some degrees while listening to it. Apart from the music, also the design of the album is done with a lot of heart. The cover was done by Samuli Ponsimaa, whom the one or the other might know as the guitarist of Finntroll. This is a very detailed and sinister black-white cover from the very depths of hell and if you open the digipack, you will have an upside-down turned cross. What a nice, blasphemous idea. I guess some stuff on the album is done with a twinkle in the band's eye but really doesn't matter. This is really well executed black metal stuff without any compromises and should be acknowledged in the scene for sure!

Rating: 9.5 out of 10