The Queen of the Elves' Land

Satarial isn't a very well-known band. Their live-shows however would appear to be infamous; inside the booklet they show pictures of bandmembers (maybe extras?) clad in chainmail whipping a naked and chained woman, firebreathing, and naked women prancing around pretending to stab devout Christians. Hoo boy.

Aaaaaanyway. Satarial plays folk metal infused with 'symphonic' black metal elements. The songs appear straightforward, taking impetus at the beginning and carrying it through untill the end. The keyboards, which are slightly to the foreground, and the flutes, which are slightly to the background, play melodies around this forward momentum. The guitars play melodies as well, and at other times do bridges from song part to song part.

Satarial doesn't seem to drive on spectacular musicianship, but rather on drive. Like many a folk-metal band, they combine a slightly medieval atmosphere with a 'dislike' for Christianity, and a preference for folk-religions. The track on which this, and their drive, is most apparent, is 'I Damned You Holy One!', which is my favorite track. The flutes take on the leading role in this small opus, and the vocalist's hatefully-seeming screeches have a bit extra passion on this song. The added female background singing add a nice touch.

The even tracks, called Ode I through V are folk-singing interludes with a corny keyboard supporting. A female vocalist does these, and they aren't anything to write home about, but they are nice and needed interludes from the up-temponess of the uneven tracks.

On the first few listens the uneven tracks might sound alike. After a while I noticed the differences and could recognize the tracks. 'Son of the Astral Fire' stands out in this respect with it's extra long intro, and odd quality the song has.

Then my version has two bonustracks taken from their first album/demo. The second one isn't that special. It's a 3-part song which in this case comes down to it being too drawn out. The first one however I like. The guitar and bass sound remind me off early black metal, like Satyricon's Dark Medieval Times, although the early BM albums didn't have flutes nor were the keyboards that dominant. I like the song a lot for it's atmosphere, even though the first listens it seems to go on and on. On later listens the song improves yet remains a bit drawn-out. Both songs have a bit muffled (demo) quality, and a darker atmosphere than the rest of this album.

I like this album better than Heidenlarm, even if just for the slightly better sound and atmosphere. This isn't an album that's going to be universally liked once discovered, and necro black metal enthiousiasts won't think this anything special I'm afraid. For people who moved to folk metal from gothic metal or 'symphonic black metal' this is recommended, even if just for the passion with which this music was made.