Satanic Warmaster - Strength and Honour (2001/2007)

For over a decade now Satanic Warmaster has been the black metal vessel of one Lauri "Satanic Tyrant Werwolf" Penttilä from Lappeenranta, Finland. Largely (although joined occasionally by others) SW has been the solo adventure of Lauri through tons of EPs, splits and four full-length albums, 'Strength and Honour' in particular being his first and also generally seen as his finest output.

Originally released in 2001 through Northern Heritage Records, 'Strength and Honour' has since been re-pressed three times, this 2007 version essentially being the ultimate version since it comes remastered as well contains the, 'Marsch Zu Neuen Zeitaltern' demo, which is Lauri's NS themed side project, Blutrache.

The Werwolf stalks his prey

Musically Satanic Warmaster delivers raw and honest old school black metal the way its meant to be played. From the get go the production is noticeably under produced and totally underground, though all the instruments (save for the bass) are easily heard. Lauri makes full usage of the buzz-saw guitar effect here and the riffs completely lacerate and maim too. There's a great deal of variance within his playing and while one might simply expect the repetitive tremolo riff technique that's simply not the case as the riffs have a sense of deep beauty buried within them as well as the more typical evil, melancholic and mysterious tones that black metal is known for. The drumming is mostly made of simple beats that keep the rhythm well enough though there's also plenty of blasting and some interesting parts during the breakdown-ish moments as well while keyboards also have a presence on a few songs though they simply linger in the background and build upon the hypnotic atmosphere.

The vocals are one of the stronger points on this album as Lauri howls, croaks and generally sounds as if he's in absolute pain as he rasps loudly away, especially take notice of his long winded shriek at the end of, 'Night Of Retribution.' The whole album (even the bonus material) plays out magnificently well with the right level of black metal malevolence to keep me bellowing for more and more. I generally find all of the songs to be quite outstanding too with 'Raging Winter,' 'Der Schwarze Orden' and the much more rockin' 'Legion Werewolf to be the albums absolute high points.

I don't suppose Satanic Warmaster is original in many ways, but it feels like Lauri channeled the finest moments of vintage Darkthrone, Graveland and Mutiilation through his own superior song writing and great musicianship and came up with quite a masterpiece, which obviously has been a favorite for many listeners for over a decade now. Your ears deserve 'Strength and Honour' and since I've shamefully neglected this band for entirely too long I think its about time I finally start filling my shelf with Satanic Warmaster releases.