Triumphal Celebration

Closing an already great festival day, SATYRICON demonstrated again why they have come to be Norway’s most popular Metal act.

Rock Mot Rus festival had been going on for two days and one after the other; the bands have been taking over the stage, building up an overhanging atmosphere of enthusiasm and communion. It was now the turn of SATYRICON to put an end to this edition of the Rock Mot Rus festival. After a rather untenable and seemingly endless wait, the band finally entered the stage at the music of “repined bastard nation”.

From this very first song to the very last, SATYRICON demonstrated why they became Norway’s hugest Black metal outfit. Endowed with a bigger than-life yet subtle sound the band kept on picking song after song. If the band, unsurprisingly, focused on their last three records, there was still room for surprise as tracks like the martial “Die by My Hand” or the majestic “To the Mountains” were played. Another surprising point was to see Satyr handling guitar duties himself on several songs and doing quite well with it while at his side, Steinar and Gildas kept on distributing neck-busting riffs.

As the show progressed, the audience kept on behaving as wildly as possible; mosh-pits, wall of death and other circle pits punctuated the songs highlights. After around an hour of complete devotion, the audience shivered as Frost’s slow drum pounding introduced “Mother North”. After this breath-taking revelation, the band left the stage, only to come back to it in a foreseeable yet enjoyable encore where “K.I.N.G.” and “Fuel For Hatred” were flawlessly delivered. After a collective salute from the towering band mates, SATYRICON left the stage and its audience for good, hereby closing an almost stainless celebration.

Reflecting after the show, there could only be one conclusion: coming to this year’s Rock Mot Rus wasn’t just a good idea; it proved to be nothing less than the year’s best concert. The quality of the music offered being worth any reasonable sacrifice.