Produced by Darklord
Released: 2001
It took almost a decade for Adelaide’s utterly cult black metal entity Darklord to spew forth this iconoclastic abomination. Symphony Satanikka is almost one hour’s worth of evil and overwhelming extreme noise. These guys are the most full-on band you've ever seen. Stormbringer and Nekromancer look like walking hardware stores with more nail- and spike-encrusted armour than Immortal and Slayer circa 1985 put together and their song titles and lyrics advocate only the most dark and violent Satanic malevolence. Their rather progressive approach uses some great tricky arrangements that build into epic and complex songs that solidify their reputation as something out of the ordinary.
Unfortunately the absolutely minimalist production values work against them. Normal guitars didn’t tune low enough, so Darklord had specially designed dual-neck twelve string instruments built to provide a fearsome bottom end, but the production is so weak most of it just sounds like white noise with a drum beat. Even worse, the keyboards virtually drown everything whenever they are used. It sounds like the album wasn’t mastered at all (and with the budget these guys had, that's probably true), making things blurry and without definition. The vocals are great though, suitably grim, shrieking and evil, vomiting Satanic praises and maledictions against the Christian God in epic, sprawling tracks like the ten-minute ‘Our Father who Art in Hell’, opening monster ‘Infernal Nekromancy’ and ‘War in the Sky’. Similarly the lead guitar work is amazing, quite possibly amongst the best display of shredding in the genre.
These two aspects, coupled with Darklord’s strong songwriting, make Symphony Satanikka a worthy purchase, but with stronger production values this album would have levelled a city, because as it is, it often just sounds like a muddle of muffled guitars and clicky drums.
- Infernal Necromancy
- Blood of Angels
- War in the Sky
- Ritual Infanticide
- Our Father Who Art in Hell
- Killing in the Name of...
- Destruction of the New Heaven
- Crush the Holy Priest
- I Summon Thee
Rating: 68%
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