Satyrian - Eternitas
Lion Music

file under gothic metal

Vera: The common divisor of Satyrian and The Bloodline (whose album ‘Where Lost Souls Dwell’ I also reviewed this month) is Roman Schönsee. Suddenly this ex Pyogenesis bassist looms up in many works. With a bit of fantasy, one could call The Bloodline more underground (in other words less trendy), while ‘Eternitas’ of Satyrian responds to all conditions a modern gothic album with leading female vocals has to have, but strangely enough it makes the entire thing less authentic. On the other hand, it may be exactly this quality that leads to fame, because it fits in a successful style without intricacies.

The foundation of Satyrian is a charming story that begins in 2002. At the end of that year, three musicians, still operating under the moniker Danse Macabre at that time, entered the Spacelab Studio to records the drums, bass, orchestration and guitars of this album. We are talking about drummer Merijn Mol, bassist Milos Marisevic and composer/guitarist Jan ‘Örkki’ Yrlund. His name is or was connected with a large amount of bands: Danse Macabre, Ancient Rites, Lacrimosa, Prestige, Imperia, Angel, Delain. ‘Eternitas’ is his baby. Piano and a few clean vocals were done by producer Oliver Philipps (Everon). As female vocal guests Kemi Vita (The Dreamside and a sure-fire performance on ‘Where Lost Souls Dwell’ of The Bloodline) and Judith ‘Ciara’ Stüber were recruited. The line-up was completed with Roman Schönsee when he agreed to take care of ‘beast(l)y’ vocals. In this line-up they went to Finland for a number of gigs, one may call this a fire-baptism, and in Lapland they shot a video clip in the meantime.

All this went so well that all the above mentioned people joined the band as full members. Then hard work is waiting for them at the Spacelab studios and in June 2004 they are ready with the recordings. The band is baptized Satyrian and they sign a new deal with Lion Music. On the 24th of March 2006 the world will finally get to know the result of this long-term cooperation. When we continue our comparison with The Bloodline, this happens to be an album on which female vocals are the main thing, while the raucous vocals of Roman lie the accents. The superb orchestration is another feature on the album. The general pace of the album is faster. A track like ‘The Dark Gift’ is a stamping dance track; probably a certain hit in electro wave land. Think about the most danceable tracks of Sisters Of Mercy. The romantic and frivolous sung ‘Sacred Lies’ could have been on an Imperia album. This is not strange at all, when you know that Jan is responsible for a great part of the music of Imperia too. Quite surprising is the folk alike ‘Bridge Of Death’ (sung by Oliver Philipps), showing another side of the band. In heavier songs like ‘Invictus’ and ‘Fall From Grace’ one can imagine Crematory when they would hire a female vocalist besides their rougher male vocals. Some dark mysteriousness can be found in ‘Feel The Rush’ (with whispering voices) and closing track ‘Ewigkeit’. All in all not a bad album, but they stay too superficial to be really engrossing.

Rating 78/100 (details)

http://www.satyrian.com