Regie Sathanas - A Tribute to Cernunnos

Fuck, I cannot believe it has already been 15 years since I have actually purchased my copy of “Regie Sathanas”! Time flies like crazy and it really makes me feel a bit old hehe. But there are always those great memories left, when I was 18 and have been a huge fan of Enthroned at that time. I really, really worshipped their first two albums (“Prophecies of Pagan Fire” and “Towards the Skullthrone of Satan”, if you don’t them) and have been listening them a lot (A LOT!!). Ha, nowadays both albums don’t really make such a big impression on me anymore, but that may be just because I know every sound on them too well and they seem slightly boring nowadays. But I still consider early Enthroned as one of the greatest black metal bands. But back to “Regie Sathanas”… It was very special release and I just had to buy my own copy, as soon as it has been available at the Polish distro (Mystic Productions’). This MCD obviously memorizes Cernunnos, the drummer of Enthroned, who committed suicide in 1997. He recorded his parts for the second LP and hasn’t even lived long enough to see it being released. Well, since I consider suicide as the stupidity more than bravery (pha!), I am not gonna cry for Cernunnos, but surely I must say that “Regie Sathanas” is actually my favourite release in the discography of Enthroned. It is just fantastic half an hour of classic Enthroned and the finest material the band has recorded.

As the booklet for “Regie Sathanas” says, some stuff from this MCD dates as back as to 1988, when Cernunnos and Sabathan were shredding the guts with their previous band Morbid Death. Song titled “Satan Never Sleeps” is the one, which was written back then and it even appeared on Morbid Death’s second demo “Diabolic Force”. I’ve never heard this demo, but when listening to the new version of this track you can obviously hear that this is something way more archaic and stylistically different to what Enthroned was ever doing. But I actually really, really like this track a lot. That opening theme is just awesome and later, when it turns into archaic thrashing death metal, but played with the black metal sound and vocals, it just blows my head off. It is actually worth to mention that the drums on “Regie Sathanas” were played by new drummer of the band, Namroth Blackthorn, who also have been a member of Morbid Death and even recorded the drums for the mentioned “Diabolic Force” demo (Dan Vandenplas, a’ka Cernunnos was a guitarist / vocalist in this band!). Ha, the history comes full circle here!

Along with this old song, Enthroned recorded here two new songs from 1997, which were composed with the new line up, after “Towards the Skullthrone of Satan” was released and again I must say that I like both songs a lot. “My Dark Glorious Thoughts” is especially killer, very fast, relentless and violent piece of black metal, but obviously it is not bereft of the melody, which has always been present in Enthroned’s music (actually, just listen to that awesome, long harmonious guitar solo… what a great tune!). Another new track, “Walpurgis Night”, may have slightly odd beginning, but it’s a classic song for this band, with catchy and memorable riffing and overall a great, dark and satanic atmosphere. Moving forward though, the cover of Sodom’s “Conqueror” sounds just absolutely fuckin KILLER, it has been played very fast and really shreds to pieces, I may even like this version more than the original song from Sodom he! I know it may sound blasphemous, but just listen to this version on “Regie Sathanas” and tell me if it is not a fuckin shredder. And finally the whole MCD is finished with a new version of “Deny the Holy Book of Lies”, my favourite song from “Prophecies of Pagan Fire” LP. And again it just sounds extremely great, it has been played way faster than on the album or “Promo 1994”, where it also appeared. And man, what an excellent piece of black metal it is, what a memorable song and amazing, obscure atmosphere. This is why I like Enthrone music so much… with those excellent riffs, raspy vocals of Sabathan and freezing cold, satanic atmosphere. Just fuckin scream “Ave Satan… ave… ave!!!!” with Sabathan and feel the essence of Enthroned! And in the end it has been played so fast that it is just a fuckin shock!

Yeah, can you feel my enthusiasm towards “Regie Sathanas”? Really, I think this MCD is just excellent and by far it is the best of all Enthroned releases, in my opinion. It is extremely powerful and contains just excellent songs, all closed in 30 minutes, what is not bad for the MCD. I strongly recommend it to you all. If you call yourself a black metal maniac, you just must have this release. For me it also has sort of sentimental value, being one of my favourite releases and bands from the mid to lat 90’s, so… “Regie Sathanas”!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope they’ll release it on vinyl one day though, as I have all other Enthroned albums on vinyl, only this one of CD hehe!
Standout tracks: “By Dark Glorious Thoughts”, “Deny the Holy Book of Lies”, “Conqueror”

This was an EP Enthroned recorded between their second and third albums as a tribute to founding member Cernunnos, who commited suicide just before the recording of "Towards The Skullthrone Of Satan". It is comprised of 5 songs and 2 instrumentals culled from older Enthroned material.

I was surprised at the quality of the music here. I am no big fan of EPs (or MCDs, as they are called these days.) and generally prefer full-length albums, but as soon as the riffs kick off on "By Dark Glorious Thoughts" I was hooked into this blurring display of BM prowess. Despite the fact that several of these songs were several years old even when they were recorded, they still sound fresh and energetic. "Walpurgis Night" is by far the coolest tune here, with a slow opener of pounding drums, chants and moaning women that builds slowly on creeping riffs to finally open up at full Enthroned speed. There is a lot more dynamic in this song than these guys usually bother with, and the lyrics are very cool. "Satan Never Sleeps" is a slower, more Death Metal tune (as it was written for the pre-Enthroned band Morbid Death) with very cool riffs, and despite being more primitive I like it a lot. "The Conquerer" is, of course, a Sodom song, but they do it well. "Deny The Holy Book of Lies" is a song from their debut album re-recorded. The sound here is much heavier than on the preceeding "Skullthrone", and overall I think this is the best production they have had.

The package is fairly typical of Enthroned, with the usual fonts and layout. I like that their albums have a unified sort of look to them, and that they have never changed their logo. (Always a sign of impending sellout.) The lyrics are cool, and the band photos are exactly what you would expect.

Despite the degree of recycling going on here, this is a very cool disc. With two instrumentals and a cover song, you are only getting 4 real Enthroned songs, otherwise I would rate this higher, but this is worth tracking down nonetheless.