PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Norwegian Black Metal legends Satyricon have signed a worldwide deal with Austrian metal label Napalm Records for release of their upcoming DVD, ‘Live At The Opera’.
Frontman and band mastermind Satyr explained the story behind the project:
“The whole thing started with us doing one song, ‘To The Mountains’ a year and a half before the actual show. We performed at a closed event in the main hall of the opera with the Royal Norwegian Opera Chorus. It was very inspirational. I then said to the conductor that I would love to do a whole show like this. He loved the idea, I was serious about it, and he was serious about it.
“We spent approximately one and a half years working with composer and arranger Kjetil Bjerkestrand on the choral arrangements. When I picked songs, I was not necessarily looking at only songs suitable for choral arrangements or typical in the Satyricon live set. For me, it had to be a combination. If you look at songs like ‘Die By My Hand’, it`s pretty obvious we`ll want to use a choir for that because it has a choir on the record too. On the other hand, there were other things I had to consider. For example, ‘K.I.N.G.’ is probably the most famous Satyricon song ever – and not necessarily a song I can imagine with choral arrangements. But just because people hear it more or less the same way always, I thought it would be interesting to take that song and give it a totally different vibe for this one time. And it`s also interesting to see if we can work it around the structure of a song that is more or less straightforward.
“For something that we planned for so long, put so much work into, and something this unique – of course it would be nice to film it and record it. But I made it very clear to the people around Satyricon that I`m not going to turn this into a recording session where you can buy tickets.When you hear or or watch this recording you should feel like you’re there.
“This is not ‘Satyricon – Best Of from the Opera’, this is a show! The perfect parts need to go in there, but also the parts that are not so perfect. That`s the nature of it, that`s the real deal. It’s not a live album. It’s a celebration of what Satyricon stands for as a band.”
‘Live At The Opera’ will be released as a DVD and double CD package on May 1 in Europe on May 5 2015 in North America via Napalm Records.
Satyricon start a European tour at Blastfest in Bergen on February 21, finishing at Hellfest on June 19. The tour stops off at Sound Control in Manchester on April 7 and La Scala in London on April 8.
