SATYRICON TO CELEBRATE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF NEMESIS DIVINA IN 2016

Artistically imperious, instinctively forward-thinking and remorselessly creative, Satyricon have long since earned the right to be hailed as one of black metal’s most important and influential bands. And now they are to revisit the album that raised them from underground heroes to bold contenders on the world stage… the timeless and towering Nemesis Divina. Satyricon will return in 2016 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of this seminal masterpiece, with a never-to-be-repeated series of exclusive European shows, wherein the Norwegian trailblazers will perform the album in its entirety for the first and last time.

“It’s not what we do and it won’t happen again!” avows frontman and creative mastermind Satyr. “This band, as you know, is definitely not retrospective. But we started playing live in 1996. Our most groundbreaking milestone record came out in 1996. Nemesis Divina is the only one of the first three records that has aged really well. It’s the only one that we still play several songs from in our set to this day… so if I’m ever going to do anniversary shows and do a reissue and make it a big deal, it’s gonna be Nemesis Divina and it has to be now.”

When Satytricon released their third album in 1996, their status as one of the most significant and creatively vital bands in Norwegian black metal was already beyond dispute. But Nemesis Divina was no ordinary record or just another step along the road to infamy. Instead, this was a revolutionary and groundbreaking piece of work from a band that had suddenly hit their stride on every conceivable level. From its uniquely vibrant and impactful artwork, which broke every supposed rule in the black metal handbook with its vivid colours and refined aesthetic core, to the supremely confident and idiosyncratic songs and individual performances that heralded a newfound sophistication and a freshly incisive vision, Nemesis Divina almost single-handedly took black metal from its voluntarily shadowy and obscure origins into the glaring spotlight of the international metal scene. There are many classic albums to salute from the Norwegian scene of the early 90s and while the likes of Mayhem, Darkthrone, Emperor and Immortal undoubtedly share Satyricon’s esteemed position in the genre’s spectral hall of fame, it was arguably Nemesis Divina that most vigorously announced the arrival of this arcane musical phenomenon to the rest of the world, destroying the notion that black metal was an entirely self-contained and inward-looking subculture in the process. Most of all, however, Nemesis Divina showcased a band that finally had the skill and the musical intuition to back up the undeniable potency of their artistic vision. Sonically devastating and compositionally meticulous, songs like Mother North and The Dawn Of A New Age redefined what black metal was capable of, while proudly retaining the genre’s ageless essence and aesthetic values.

“Our second record The Shadowthrone was a bigger success than our first, Dark Medieval Times, but everything expanded tenfold with Nemesis Divina,” Satyr states. “For most people who liked the first two records, Satyricon climbed to a whole different level on Nemesis Divina and people really started to love the band. This album has a special place in our history. We sold 15,000 on Dark Medieval Times and then 30 or 40,000 on The Shadowthrone… but here comes Nemesis Divina and we quite quickly exceeded 50,000 and then suddenly it’s 80,000 and then 100,000 records, and those numbers were unheard of in our small part of the world. That was the record that everyone that was into this scene wanted to buy. If you say there are two stages of evolution in black metal – the 80s, with Venom and Celtic Frost and Bathory, and then the 90s with the Norwegian stuff and everything followed in its wake – there are, at most, a handful of albums and a handful of songs that really define modern day black metal. Nemesis Divina is definitely one of those records and Mother North is definitely one of those songs.”

Nemesis Divina will be re-released in the spring of 2016, replete with brand new, updated packaging and fully remastered by Satyr himself. Kicking off with a special gig at Oslo’s legendary Rockefeller venue – the place where Satyricon played their first ever live show - on February 20, 2016. The ensuing tour will begin later in the spring, with exclusive one-off shows in all major European territories and a handful of festival dates during the summer. As Satyr explains, beginning the tour in Oslo creates a certain magical symmetry, completing a circle than began two decades ago.

“Rockefeller is an iconic venue, it’s the rock venue in Norway and they’re celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2016,” Satyr explains. “The first show I saw there was in ’87 when it was pretty much a brand new venue, and I remember dreaming of one day being able to play on that stage myself, as I watched Slayer, Anthrax, Testament, King Diamond, Candlemass and all these other bands play there. The very first show that I ever played in my life was the release concert for Nemesis Divina at Rockefeller in 1996. So it’s 20 years since Satyricon made its live debut as a band, 20 years since we released Nemesis Divina and we have the possibility to do a Rockefeller show… but it takes a lot to prepare everything for just one show, so I thought ‘Either we do multiple shows, re-release the album and do it properly…or we don’t do it at all’. So here we are. We’ll be performing Nemesis Divina, front to back, across Europe in the summer of 2016 and we look forward to sharing this unique experience with our loyal fans.”

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