Satyricon : "Deep Calleth Upon Deep"

At this point, I think only those in the deepest denial think of these guys as black metal. There are still black metal elements in play, but they are not much different than Behemoth in that regard. The opener throbs with darkness. It has a disdain more than anger to it. There is a groove and hints of melody. The drums are less produced than I expected. When I get into the winding riffs This album does have a rawer element than their more recent stuff. The guitar gets adventurous in its use of melody. The drumming begins to really take off in this song. Some of the more angular mathematic riffs clutter up the energy. The drums do work best in some of the more groove-oriented sections of dissonance. At times the riffs even remind me of Morbid Angel. So that old-school feel of death metal.

They sound more black metal when they slow down into a darker melodic pulse with " To Your Brethren in the Dark". Up until this point, I was iffy on the vocals which are in more of a spoken croak. The croak however is placed in the drone of the song right where it needs to be. There is a more mainstream metal sound to the very deliberate groove of the title track.It almost sings like he is croaking out passages from Edgar Allen Poe rather than singing.  There are some weird almost operatic vocals in the background. They do something similar in " the Ghost of Rome". It builds up and throws in some guitar harmonies, but is not a wild deviation from what they normally do."Dissonant" has an interesting groove to its more jazz-like stomp.

The first hint of black metal doesn't show up until "Black Wings and Withering Gloom". Then we get a few blast beats and thrash gallops. The lyrics are about the winter and the snow, which is better than some of the mumbo jumbo the other songs have been about. The album ends with "Burial Rite". This song is more aggressive than most of this album. It reminds me a little of Inquisition. I am not sure what this song is about aside from Leviathan making the sea rumble which has nothing to do with the rest of the song. Two and a half minutes into it the song feels like it is beginning to drag a little. Just as I think that it transitions, but it seems a little arbitrary. I'll round this one up to a 9, as the rawer production makes this one of the first albums by these guys that I can take seriously, and don't feel the need to write it off as mall metal. This album comes out September 22nd.