Opferblut is Satanic Warmaster’s best album. It’s a perfect combination of speed, fury, and melody, all of which are filtered through cold and raw production. They recorded a few more albums after that one, but they were unable to reach the same lofty heights. After eight years of putting out live albums, they released a new full-length album called Aamongandr at the end of last year. The cover art was painted by the great Ken Kelly. He is the nephew of Frank Frazetta, another legendary artist. He is most famous for creating the covers of the KISS albums Destroyer and Love Gun. Sadly, he died last year. This was the last cover art he ever drew.
The first thing I noticed was that the production had returned to that cloudy, lo-fi quality that was a hallmark of Opferblut. This in turn made the music both enchanting and menacing. The musical formula has remained the same, but it feels like it has been revitalized. The old ferocious energy has returned, and it has brought with it new elements which I will discuss later. The drums spend most of their time playing traditional black metal blast beats. Fast and simple patterns dominate, but they never get repetitive. Sometimes they throw in some extremely stripped-down bass-snare rhythms on songs like “Berserk Death”. They even play some slower beats on occasion.
The vocals still consist of a high-pitched raspy scream, but they sound more wicked and spiteful than they did in the past. This album also contains some of the best guitar work the band has done in many years. The tremolo parts are equal parts cold, harsh, menacing, graceful, and melodic. They also manage to be quite catchy at times, especially those on “Berserk Death”. They then proceed to make things more interesting by including other influences. “Duke’s Ride (Ride of the Spectral Hooves)” possesses atmospheric elements reminiscent of Emperor. There’s a strong folk element at the end of “The Eye of Satan”. The final track, with its slow and morose quality, almost sounds like a spiritual successor to Burzum’s “Dunkelheit”.
Aamongandr is Satanic Warmaster’s best album since Opferblut. The ferocious instrumental performance, wondrous melody, and compelling songwriting have been honed to near perfection. I feared that Werwolf was losing his edge, but he has proven that he is just as creative and energetic now as he was two decades ago.