Troll - Neo-Satanic Supremacy
Sometimes when I receive an album to review I get a misconception about what it will be like. Having taken a shining to Troll’s earlier works, their latter industrial leanings did not find favour with me. But roll on nearly 9 years, and Troll are back, they are back in a big way too. Long gone is the industrial edge and a hellish welcome of the favoured symphonic black metal mastery is fresh and exciting for 2010. Face facts, symphonic black metal is always going to be compared to the likes of Dimmu Borgir (Troll’s Nagash aka Stian Arnesen, spent some time in this band) and Cradle of Filth, simply because they were so popular.
I use that description in the past tense deliberately, as I feel Troll have simply eclipsed both bands and found a way to display some quality tunes, even if there are a lot of keyboard elements that I never really like, much similarities go out to the second Covenant (Nor) album (‘Nexus Polaris’) before they went downhill and changed their name (another one of Nagash’s old bands). There appears to be a trend here, and perhaps this shows how much of an influence Nagash was to those bands. The drumming is as expected, fast, furious, but very precise and the production is spot on too. Two tracks stick out in my mind, those being ‘"Gå Til Krig" (Go to War) and "Alt for Satan". Although these feature pretty early in the timeline of the album, one cannot deny some arrangements that are both battering and atmospheric at the same time. I don’t normally review black metal genre albums, of whatever variation, but this one has me intrigued and smitten with each listen. "Neo-Satanic Supremacy" is an album (complete with the in-your-face cheesy title) you must listen too if you like symphonic black metal.
A real surprise listen, this is not what was expected from Troll at all. The album title says it all, Satanic Supremacy it is, a welcomed return to a fine Norwegian band often forgotten, but proving that they are a force to be reckoned with in 2010.
I use that description in the past tense deliberately, as I feel Troll have simply eclipsed both bands and found a way to display some quality tunes, even if there are a lot of keyboard elements that I never really like, much similarities go out to the second Covenant (Nor) album (‘Nexus Polaris’) before they went downhill and changed their name (another one of Nagash’s old bands). There appears to be a trend here, and perhaps this shows how much of an influence Nagash was to those bands. The drumming is as expected, fast, furious, but very precise and the production is spot on too. Two tracks stick out in my mind, those being ‘"Gå Til Krig" (Go to War) and "Alt for Satan". Although these feature pretty early in the timeline of the album, one cannot deny some arrangements that are both battering and atmospheric at the same time. I don’t normally review black metal genre albums, of whatever variation, but this one has me intrigued and smitten with each listen. "Neo-Satanic Supremacy" is an album (complete with the in-your-face cheesy title) you must listen too if you like symphonic black metal.
A real surprise listen, this is not what was expected from Troll at all. The album title says it all, Satanic Supremacy it is, a welcomed return to a fine Norwegian band often forgotten, but proving that they are a force to be reckoned with in 2010.
1. Neo-Satanic Supremacy
2. Alt for Satan
3. Gå Til Krig
4. Burn the Witch
5. Mørkets Skoger
6. Hvor Tåken Ligger Så Trist Og Grå
7. Neo-Satanic Supremacy
8. At the Gates of Hell
9. Smertens Rike
10. The Age of Satan
