Satanic Warmaster ‎"Black Katharsis" CD Northern Heritage!!

Track 3 originally composed by Sacarth for Shatargat.

Those more versed in the bands discography have most likely come to notice the relative disparity of Satanic Warmaster's individual albums, especially the lesser releases (ie. not full-length ones). Each album should be regarded as an individual piece of music rather than a part of a easily perceivable continuum.
As with many other bands of the Finnish black metal scene, especially after the inital boom of early and mid 90s, the stylistical choices and decisions made by these musicians are easily indentifiable as black metal aspects, but to a great extent, only the superficial layer of music is derivate and uniform. Even bands like Satanic Warmaster that are, based on some releases, viewed as highly stereotypical, have branched out in their music to surprising lengths. "Black Katharsis" is an example of one such experimentation, tentative as it is. It's reminiscent of bands like Baptism, even later Horna, but most obviously, Cosmic Church. Mid-paced, moody (if somewhat vague) black metal where minimalism is a defining characteristic and inspiration is channeled through a raw and unpretentious presentation.
"Black Katharsis" is in many ways similar to the debut full-length "Strength and Honour". The following full-length marked and end to this approach (which then did not, to my knowledge, manifest in Satanic Warmaster's music until later). The recording is already of higher quality – for one thing, the vocal tracks aren't full of cracks, pops and overwhelmingly loud consonants. The rawness remains palpable still in the guitar tracks' very low-quality sound – the sound of an incredibly poor quality recording or terribly lossy audio – whereas the drums are audible, clear and relatively loud, and without a trace of the guitars' awful production. Yet the rawness is contained to an extent that allows non-fans of excessively lo-fi black metal enjoy the album even if the low production values are considered a negative aspect. The album is wholly listenable to the average black metal listener's ears.
"Remembrance Of Times Forgotten" opens the EP with mid-paced, fairly monotonous and unexciting but refreshingly melodic music, with plodding, unvaried rhythms and surprisingly light riffing. "Cursed Emperor" has its faster and more intensive moments, but like the first track it mainly consists of melodic, simplistic and somewhat emotive riffing. In an interview the album was described by the interviewer to be an example of Satanic Warmaster's more depressive side, however, that is really quite false. Fans of more depressive forms of black metal might find this MCD more appealing than most of the band's output, but the riffing is chiefly positive in nature. The greatest fault in the music is that the dominant emotional states are somewhat vague. When black metal is based on simplicity, raw sound quality and a couple of riffs to span over some twenty minutes of music, it should rely on the strength of the riffs, or alternatively the atmosphere and emotivity. "Black Katharsis" attempts both to some extent, but only some moments of "Cursed Emperor" attain moderate success in both, whereas "Remembrance Of Times Forgotten" and "...Hiljaisuudesta" aimlessly wander in a limbo of ambiguity and lacking.
Though the album is moderately forgettable and lacks actual musical genius, it's definitely an enjoyable piece of music, and not to be overlooked. Fans of the debut full-length who were more than slightly dismayed by Opferblut are especially recommended to track down this release.

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