Vobiscum Satanas

Since the very beginning of my course into the black metal dark realm, I always tried to figure out how many sub-genres could be listed into the upper level category: I find very useful labels in order to keep a categorization through a lot of different stylistic nuances, but I often discourage micro-labelling, like atmospheric black metal, depressive black metal, melodic black metal, raw black metal, cosmic black metal and so on. Within the whole black metal genre, I'm used to see a higher hierarchical level, namely the black metal in itself, plus a secondary genre, symphonic black metal, that I consider legitimately standing on its own! Even terms like proto-black metal, or first and second wave of black metal, are not so useful for me. If you try to figure out how many different interpretations exist within a genre like black metal, or death metal, and forcingly putting every one of them inside a category, a label on its own, then, tell me: Chuck Schuldiner's Death is clearly death metal, but it is not exactly the same as Morbid Angel's style, which is not comparable with Obituary's style, very different from, let's say, Malevolent Creation's approach, or Incantation's one, or Deicide's one and so on!

Even with black metal, looking exclusively at the Norwegian style, you can say that there are a lot of variants: Immortal are black metal, for sure, but with little or nothing in common with Mayhem, or Satyricon, or Darkthrone. So, the only reasonable thing to do, is using the minimum required set of labels to clearly specify a genre, then, if anything, group the band by geographical styles. Thus, black metal remains black metal everywhere, but you have Hellenic, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Polish black metal etcetera. All these labels are not so well and uniquely related to a compositional or playing set of techniques: again, Dissection and Sacramentum are not on the same trail of Marduk, Setherial or Dark Funeral! But, all of those are with no doubt Swedish black metal! With a more violent, brutal approach than the quasi-NWOBHM infused black metal from Dissection and all its subsequent breed, Dark Funeral, among many others, kick started their career with the now classic "The Secrets of the Black Arts": a very impressive piece of work, with freezing and frenzy songs, all packaged with a perfect, trebly production.

I'm very satisfied by the sound in that debut album, but it was the following "Vobiscum Satanas" that really reached, in my opinion, the peak for that style of black metal: I consider this 1998's Dark Funeral second release even better than a lot of Marduk's equally successful records, and way more convincing than the majority of Setherial's discography! The main advantage of this album is that it is, in a 35 minutes long, compact, just 8 songs, no fillers all killers track list, relentless, even colder than the first album, with a constant storming riffage of melodic and razor sharp tremolo-picked guitars. More in detail: Emperor Magus Caligula's screams are very, very high pitched, but by no mean laughable or ridiculous, and equally impressive are his growls, perfectly suited even in a non-death metal environment. Drums' patterns are mainly traditional blast-beats (16th measure fractioning) interplayed with thrashy skank-beats (8th measure fractioning), but the first rhythmic figure is full of dynamics, with crash cymbals underlined accents, wonderful fills and good variety in the use of ride and hat cymbals! On the other hand, skank-beats, played underneath a continuous, highly fluid tremolo-picking guitar riffing, loose their reference to thrash metal, where a hardcore punk palm-muted root note pedal is required to emphasize the sense of "beating" (the thrash, as obvious!).

Thus explained, here you have a seamless flow of tight 16th fractions back and forth with a wider 8th measure rhythmic split: keeping nearly all the time the guitars in 16th, un-muted strings tremolo technique, everything appears just frenetic, unstoppable black metal with no weak moments. A blood-freezing assault from start to finish could be seen as a downside, but I truly like this more homogeneous track list rather than the - also great, for sure - album's structure of the first effort. The following, third release "Diabolis Interium" is still a good one, not on the same level of the one reviewed here, but nonetheless a solid Swedish black metal album. I think that the band then started to lose its credibility, becoming a strange case of mainstream black metal very focused on on-stage live-show performance, which seems a little bit contradictory for a misanthropic anti-life, anti-human, anti-god, anti-cosmic, anti-everything genre like black metal!

Following their impressive debut full length "The Secrets of the Black Arts" and the departure of Blackmoon (R.I.P.), it was intriguing to see in which direction the still burgeoning Dark Funeral would evolve. The outcome is, in my view, the most unyielding and, paired with the later classic "Where Shadows Forever Reign," the best Dark Funeral album to date.

"Vobiscum Satanas" delivers a tight 35-minute blast of prime Swedish Black Metal. Free from any unnecessary fillers, intros, or outros, it’s a direct onslaught from start to finish. The album features the classic Tägtgren Trademark production of its time, which, in my eyes, superbly complements the songs.

Standout tracks include "Enriched by Evil" – I remember vividly the first time I heard this track in 1998, immediately captivated by its tempestuousness and raw energy. The chorus still embodies the perfect mix of wild frenzy and atmospheric harmonies for me. "Evil Prevail" – This track begins at a slightly slower pace, offering a more complex structure. The final riff, especially from the 3:40 mark, is nothing short of magnificent. "Slava Satana" – The album's second shortest track doesn’t skimp on epic riffs, boasting a mid-tempo, purely instrumental refrain. "Vobiscum Satanas" – The title track kicks off in mid-tempo before diving back into a blastbeat after 30 seconds. It's the most menacing track harmonically, with spoken vocals and signature Swedish Black Metal riffs at 1:36 and 3:55 that are simple yet played with such precision that they become exceedingly effective.

The album's sole minor weakness lies in its cover art. Had "Vobiscum Satanas" been graced with a cover akin to "The Secrets of the Black Arts" or "Where Shadows Forever Reign," it would have flawlessly completed the masterpiece, securing its place in my personal Vinyl Hall of Fame.

Well talk about a change of plans. My review for The Secrets of the Black Arts was originally just gonna be an one-off thing I would do before focusing on another album to review. But then I really thought about Dark Funeral's discography and how much it changed throughout the years, and I've decided that I'm going to be making a new series where I take a look at the discography of Dark Funeral as a way to prepare for their newest album "We Are the Apocalypse" that is coming out later this month. For this one, we're gonna be reviewing their second 1998 album "Vobiscum Satanas".

Now right off the bat, you'll notice that this record sounds a lot like the previous album, which is immediately apparent with the first track "Ravenna Strigoi Mortii". The guitars riffs are very raw and bring in a sorrowful atmosphere similar to that of the first album. The drumming, however, has gotten better, since its drumming feels more varied and technical, and they don't sound like they're doing blastbeats for the sake of it like in The Secrets of the Black Arts. The same can also be said to the bass, as it's a lot more audible this time and sounds very deep and thick, providing a good foundation for the track. While the overall atmosphere of this track is sorrowful and depressed, there is a noticeable grim element added in to the vibe, which makes the song sound more creepy and dark, which I really like. "Ravenna Strigoi Mortii" is a good track, but other great instrumentals on here include "Thy Legions Come", "Evil Prevail", and "Ineffable King of Darkness". The instrumentals are more or less the same as that of The Secrets of the Black Arts, but the improved drumming, bass, and more grim and dark atmosphere makes this one a slight improvement from the previous album.

But where things start to go downhill a bit is the vocals. Themgoroth and Blackmoon ended up leaving the band after the release of the first album, and Masse Broberg (a.k.a., Emperor Magus Caligula) would come and replace them for the vocals. While his vocals are still good, they're noticeably downgraded. His vocals involve more high-pitched shrieks compared to the lower tones of the previous album's vocals, and they're okay, but still feel a bit monotone. This is especially apparent on the track "The Black Winged Horde". The song is pretty good, but Emperor Magus Caligula's high-pitched shrieks sound like most of the other black metal vocalists at that time, which doesn't make him stand out from the everyone else in the scene. There are also some deep growls that play throughout the album, which are good at adding in some aggression in the tracks, but they feel a bit weakened when paired up with the generic vocals. Emperor Magus Caligula's vocals are passable, but they don't really stand out when compared to other black metal vocals.

And then there's the lyrics. The lyrics on the previous album were great, but like the vocals, the songwriting seems to have been downgraded. Take the track "Slava Satan" for example, where this verse quotes:

I am a creature of thy creation, spawn of
Thy flame, inflame of thy mind carrier of the alteration
Let lighting storms hail the approach of thy arrival
Oh, mighty Satan - lord

This verse is about Satan coming and causing chaos in the world. They're not terrible, but the whole pro-Satanism feels really cheesy, especially with "Slava Satan!" being sung like it's the best thing since sliced bread. Not that I have a problem with the Satanism or anything, as I think the theme can be cool if it's done right, but here, it's being played out as if some kid just found out about Satanism and wants to join it just to look cool. On the other hand, however, you got songs like "Vobiscum Satanas", where Satanism is treated as a serious topic, and it's to a point where I'd be generally afraid of dealing with Satan in that song. Maybe it's the issue with clashing Lord Ahriman and Typhos's songwriting skills together, but the lyricism on this album feels like a hit or miss.

Overall, this album was pretty good. The vocals felt more bland and tedious than the previous album, and the lyrics are mixed in terms of quality in songwriting. Despite this, the unique take on the previous album's atmosphere did salvage much of it, as well as improving the playing of the drums and bass, so when factoring all of these things, the overall quality of the album is still good. I would recommend checking this album out, but be warned, because as we continue on with this series, Dark Funeral's music is going to take a darker turn...

Dark Funeral has always been a quite ordinary black metal band. It emerged in 1993, the notorious year of popularization of black metal as a musical genre. The band hasn't been changing significantly through its lengthy existence, although some listeners give a special attention to the first EP and the debut full-length album, praising the work of guitarist Blackmoon, who left the band after "The Secrets of the Black Arts". However, guitarist Lord Ahriman has always been a dominant force of Dark Funeral and the only member to remain in the lineup for all time. Other places in the lineup were always being taken by different musicians, while Lord Ahriman was ruling, preserving the style of Dark Funeral.

The consistency of the band is well noticed on the second full-length album "Vobiscum Satanas", the first release after the departure of Blackmoon. Dark Funeral didn't bring any significant changes after this shift. "Vobiscum Satanas" is a fast piece of black metal. The production is normal, the sound isn't plastic, but moderately raw. Stylistically it's the same regularly sounding black metal, that was on "The Secrets of the Black Arts", just cleaner. Tremolo riffs and blast beats can be noticed here and there. It's the first record of Dark Funeral with the vocals of Emperor Magus Caligula, who also recorded bass for the album. His vocal style is a pretty common way of performing black metal screaming. It's not very recognizable, but it's decent, as it performed in a truly powerful way, fitting to the aggressive nature of the music. So, the music of the album is mauling and pounding, while it has the tones of the melodicism, which was widely spread among the Swedish bands.

The most obvious similarities for the style of "Vobiscum Satanas" are in the likes of Immortal, Gorgoroth, Dissection, Marduk of "Those of the Unlight" and "Opus Nocturne", and Mayhem of the early 90s. The influences of the last three bands bring not only the aggression, but that kind of melodicism, which already was mentioned. It establishes a mysterious atmosphere. Although Dark Funeral doesn't make this atmosphere that pronounced, like it was on the records of Mayhem and Dissection. "Vobiscum Satanas" is majorly harsh and sweeping, but it doesn't demonstrate anything really remarkable in terms of songwriting. There are not many memorable moments here and it's tough to name the highlights of the album. The problem of "Vobiscum Satanas" is in aggression being a main goal. "Vobiscum Satanas" eventually sounds pounding, but not really interesting. It's a such kind of albums, which fits only for a special mood and only for it, because it lacks standout moments.

Dark Funeral´s self titled EP was a promising prelude. So the next logical step was to strive for perfection on the following full-lengths. And lo and behold, "The Secrets of the Black Arts" marked a milestone in their development while "Vobiscum Satanas" was simply perfect. The Swedish brigade unleashed such a storm of black metal that most of the similar music making bands were endangered to be blown away by this elemental power. The combination of the vigorous and sinister production and the fast and furious compositions opened the possibility to have a very intensive acoustical experience. From the first second of the merciless opener "Ravenna Strigoi Mortii" you dived deeply into a world of impenetrable darkness where four Scandinavian demons incessantly haunted you. But the opener just marked the first of eight excellent tracks. Due to the overwhelming overall impression, it is not easy to highlight details. Nevertheless, let´s try it.

Dark Funeral delivered an enormous sound density without leaving the realistic possibility of withdrawal. The music embraced you violently. This was primarily a result of the awesome ambiance. Of course, they also created outstanding riffs, but they were not an end in themselves. They served to form the grim and threatening melody lines that were aggressive and atmospheric at the same time while being supported by the tight and flawless rhythm section. The demonic vocals also played their part in making this album outstanding. The title track was provided with a vocal performance that differed from the rest. The voice was far lower while offering a diabolic sprechgesang. Perhaps it was Satan himself, who knows? However, the title track was part of a raging triple strike that awaited the listener at the end. A lot of bands release albums where the last songs are significantly weaker than the first ones. But although "Ravenna Strigoi Mortii" could surely be considered as a fantastic opener, the greatest highlights were surprisingly concentrated at the end.

"The Black Winged Horde" was equipped with the frostiest guitar lines, accurate tempo changes and a more or less melodious solo that was contrasted by inhuman growls. As said above, the title track seemed to be inspired by Satan himself. Finally, "Ineffable King of Darkness" was a very fitting conclusion of the album in respect of its high speed rhythm and the increasingly insane screaming at the end. The guy with the sweet pseudonym Emperor Magus Caligula seemed to be close to collapsing. But I have to be honest this is precisely what I typically expect from a black metal artist. To express it in the words of Holy Moses, it is about "Strength Power Will Passion". Generally I also expect a well elaborated cover, but we cannot have it all. So what? The suboptimal cover was only of minor importance and it could be positively mentioned that the digipak offered also atmospheric pictures of forested ridges. Ultimately, the only thing that counts was and still is the phenomenal hyper-speed music. Back in 1998, only Marduk´s "Nightwing" achieved the level of "Vobiscum Satanas" in terms of Swedish black metal.

Wow, I don't think that it gets more evil than this! "Vobiscum Satanas" is an utter abomination to say the least. There's so much on these 8 tracks which are filled with lyrics that pretty much tackle Satanism entirely. This is black metal played in it's most extreme form. What else to say about this release of a pure holocaust! Featured here on this lineup is Emperor Magus Caligula on vocals/bass, Lord Ahriman on guitars, Typhos on guitars and Alzazmon on drums. They have gone through several lineup changes over the years but that hasn't stopped them from producing black metal to its mightiest extreme. It's a shame that this is only a little bit over 35 minutes in length.

The music itself features guitars playing at utterly spell bounding tempos most of the whole way through this release. Not too much variety there but that doesn't take away from the power the album exhibits. Also, the guitars on this release were tuned down to E-Flat which is the tuning they have always used since their first release "The Secret Of The Black Arts." The blast beating drums is featured on this entire release except for a few slower tempos but not that many. Also, some drums that contain fast double bass but it isn't prevalent throughout this whole release. The guitars contain tremolo picking almost through every track. It doesn't really change much here because I think their focus was to pound out some seriously evil sounds. They succeeded too by using minor chord progressions all throughout the album! This is about as dark as it gets. Since it was my first Dark Funeral release I'd have to say it was quite amazing.

This was a re-released version of this album which contains 4 bonus tracks of them playing these songs live. Vocal wise Emperor Magus Caligula exhibits some pretty extreme high end screaming which is what's featured almost entirely throughout this whole release. There are some tracks with him just bellowing some low end blasphemous lyrics. This is featured on the title track as well as a few other tracks as well. I can't say that I'm really into the lyrics but nevertheless Dark Funeral has really caught my ear. The overall production, mixing, and engineering is definitely spell binding. This is an earlier release too and it simply dominates. I couldn't get into the live tracks though I didn't really care for the sound quality. But I don't really like live tracks anyway. The fact that I got the re-released version is ok nevertheless.

For me, all of the tracks were well composed. Though I like "Enriched By Evil" and the title track the most. But like I said, there weren't any tracks on here that I disliked. This is a pure Satanic black metal release. The fact that they didn't use keyboards to make this more chilling was really awesome. It was the vocals, guitar and overall sound plus lyrics which achieved their success in making it captivating. The sound quality is good as well though I couldn't really get into the live versions of these songs. Not that they're bad I just can't get into any bands that have live tracks on their album. All 8 tracks on this are good. But like I said, I don't like live tracks to be totally honest.

The Dark Funeral’s return after The Secrets Of The Black Arts album has the name of Vobiscum Satanas and we are ready to be overwhelmed and destroyed by another massive piece of fast black metal. One of the main characteristics of their style is the addition of dark but distinctive “melodic” lines under the fast paces in order to transform the songs in something more recognizable and catchy if we want, but always black metal. For this they use some tremolo picking parts over the furious and restless open chords riffs that give the right atmosphere of total darkness and death.

The first track is among the most famous ones from this band. “Ravenna Strigoi Mortii” is immediately fast with blast beats and hyper cold riffs. The unmistakable apocalyptic atmosphere is always present and even the more mid-paced, short sections are full of riffs and darkness. The vocals are scary, screamed and they follow that gloom that lies on these tracks. The production is better than the one on the first album and now the instruments have acquired even more power. The drums and the guitars reign supreme over this album and that’s normal.

The lyrics are always about Satanism and occult stuff to complete a scenario of pure malignance and darkness. There’s no too much variation among these tracks in terms of structure because they are mostly fast with few stops to make the drummer relax a bit and change patterns. Albums like this one are not for fancy boys and if you expect innovations, progressive parts or I don’t know what, well, you are completely wrong. The riffs are cold as ice; a sort of reverb is utilized to create a sense of profundity to the sound and it’s like being in a dark abyss surrounded by this black music in a vortex that brings you down.

“Enriched by Evil” is very good in some parts with the main riff because it shows also a hint of melody in a sea of brutality where the black waves are for the guitars and the cold wind is for the drums. “Thy Legions Come” is even more pissed-off than the rest and has another great, main riff.
The growls parts are perfect once again to add more darkness and variety to the sound, while the distant, icy riffs of “Evil Prevail” welcome us. This time the tempo changes are more evident and the guitars show arpeggios on the distorted sounds. “Slava Satan” is again concentrated on the gloom overtures and the fast restarts. It’s a well-balanced song that takes the influences both from the violence and the dark “atmosphere”.

“The Black Winged Horde” takes again the violent, fast direction. The main riff is good again but the other parts are less memorable. A special credit here should be given to the vocal parts because they are incredibly screamed and evil. The title track is a quite long, massive example of not so fast black metal with the always present and welcome breaks. The vocals here are truly scary because they switch of tonalities in many parts, so they reach also whispered ones. Here there’s a heavier sense for the atmosphere and the murkiness. The last “Ineffable King of Darkness” is another quite famous track by this band and settles on fast paces to end this album with brutality.

All in all, this is a very good follow-up by a truly violent band. Albums like this one are not full of strange, smart or complex elements. Here it’s all about the pure violence and it can take form of fast paces or sudden, dark and more “atmospheric” breaks. The main word is “darkness” and Satan is pleased.