In support of their recent self-titled album release, Satyricon was out to conquer the world with yet another tour, and this tour was set to begin in Amager Bio, Copenhagen.
This was obviously not something to be passed up, and so we were there, beer in hand and ready to raise hell!

A huge backdrop depicting the same satyr that’s on the cover of the latest album was decorating the entire back wall, with Frost’s spiked drum kit adding to the scene just in front of it and Sigurd ‘Satyr’ Wongraven’s stylized mic stand topping it off in the very front. More people were filling the hall now than for the support and the pressure on the front was rising.
Anticipation was also rising as a heartbeat with spoken words over it marked the intro of tonight’s main act, heartbeat and words that were drowned in cheers as the musicians took the stage, lead by Wongraven himself. The band went straight to it, opening the show with the opener of the album, Voice Of Shadow, and picked up pace as they took a huge leap backwards in time as they played Hvite Krists Død next. This definitely pleased the large crowd as headbanging and shriek along (can’t really call it singing now can we?) was the course of the day.
The set continued on and gave us a hit parade from mostly the newer era Satyricon but without forgetting the roots of the band as well, again a choice which certainly pleased a lot of the darkened spirits present. The extremely catchy and groovy Now, Diabolical and Black Crow On A Tombstone were probably my favourites, but there were so many more songs that just clicked this evening, the freight train (in Wongraven’s own words) Repined Bastard Nation definitely being one of them.

The songs weren’t the only thing that clicked this night either. At first look the performance might not have looked like much, but all of the musicians, with the obvious exception of Kjetil-Vidar ‘Frost’ Haraldstad and for some reason the live keyboardist, were always moving and/or headbanging and kept things lively without any apparent effort.
It took some time before Wongraven said something between songs, but when he finally began it seemed like he didn’t have a problem keeping the one-sided conversation going – he made a funny remark about how a coffee shop attendant here in Denmark didn’t understand him when he had ordered a cup of coffee using his mother tongue (which sounds basically the same as it would have in Danish) the same morning, and was pleased to hear that there was at least no problem using Norwegian here at the show. He also mentioned a call from a man wanting to speak to him regarding an induction to a Hall of Fame – while Wongraven’s first reaction had been that he was far too young to be in a Hall of Fame, he soon realized that is wasn’t him that was being inducted, but rather the Nemesis Divina album.
In between speeches and singing, Wongraven also found time to show off some guitar skills, but this was kept towards the end of the concert, starting with the song To The Mountains. I’m not quite sure why it was needed, the other two were doing a fine job, and even though Satyricon had an excellent sound this evening, I couldn’t really see the benefit of three guitars at once.

It was entertaining however, and I was definitely not the only one of this opinion. The floor positively boiled with banging heads and sweating bodies, and several of us screamed along as best we possibly could, throwing in the odd black metal pose for good measure. Truly, this was a devil-ridden black metal evening, but that only meant that we were given a hellishly good time from the black-clad Norwegians. Even though shouts for more of course echoed after the last encore, I highly doubt anybody left Amager Bio this night without a feeling of fulfillment.
Satyricon is not the band that I have followed the most intensely on a live stage, but I can honestly say that I have never seen them better than this. Not only that, this was also one of the best concerts of any band that I have seen in a long time – my world certainly rumbled this night!

Setlist:

Voice Of Shadows
Hvite Krists Død
Now, Diabolical
Black Crow On A Tombstone
Our World, It Rumbles Tonight
Ageless Northern Spirit
Repined Bastard Nation
Nekrohaven
The Infinity Of Time And Space
Forhekset
To The Mountains
The Pentagram Burns
Mother North
Fuel For Hatred
K.I.N.G.