It’s not often that we’re able to come across any style from any particular genre that manages to not just push the envelope with forward-thinking tendencies but still manage to keep the original ideas solid and healthy despite the progress of time and the want for new ideas. Black metal, in particular, has long been a style that manages to go down both roads with each providing glory in its own capacity. While it can feel as though a straightforward creation of black metal that invokes the old school can feel dull in the wrong hands, there’s nothing like seeing it done splendidly. Satanic Warmaster is far from the first act to continue the classic streak of excellence, but it’s effortlessly one name whose reputation and history speaks for itself since its inception in the 90s with its newest creation naught but precisely what we could come to expect from the name.

It is such that when an album comes around that checks off all the boxes for a “typical” black metal experience that you’ll get just as many people say it’s as fascinating as it is boring purely because of that. For me, though, it all depends on how it is handled with how much passion and energy went into the creation at hand for it to really become a work that either fails or succeeds. The past of Satanic Warmaster has always pointed towards every release from the name having tremendous energy and power the likes of which many hope to emulate if not outright recreate, and that proves no different with the six massive fiery tracks of “Aamongandr”. Ripping right from the very beginning and not so much as offering a shred of light to those who find themselves in the midst of such mastery, this is the exact kind of insanity that I think any of us could come to expect from the likes of Satanic Warmaster. Ferocious from the very onset but never once lacking in knowing when to pull back for maximum effect, “Aamongandr” is peak Satanic Warmaster on such a scale that is nigh on intoxicating with how murderous it is at every possible turn with fans new and old having more than enough to latch onto with how deadly the execution is without any shred of compromisation to bad had in any given second of this powerful record.

Simply put, this is what many aspire to create when channeling the coveted classic vein of black metal. Satanic Warmaster perpetuates the sound tremendously while never once failing to deliver its own personality to ensure the record doesn’t suffer the fate of becoming another by-the-numbers creation. There is more than enough to find within the torturous chambers of “Aamongandr” with Satanic Warmaster still in such a form that cannot be considered anything less than undeniable.

“Aamongandr” releases on December 30th via Werewolf Records!

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