What a solid year for Finnish Black Metal. Sargeist very recently released a fantastic album in Let the Devil In. Sargeist took their best aspects as a band and expanded the dimensions of what makes them a name to remember. They also eliminated what drew them back as a second rate act. Satanic Warmaster, a one man project led by Satanic Tyrant Werewolf, released a few months ago another fantastic Finnish record entitled Nachzherer. This was arguably the finest to come from Satanic Warmaster. However, this album in question, Carelian Satanist Madness, is the album that really got me into Satanic Warmaster. If you are not sure of what “Carelian” means, they are the Finnish people living in Northwestern Russia very near their Finnish homeland. What the Carelians have to do with Satanism or madness I may never know, but the name does not mean anything here. What we have on tap is a grim and frostbitten record spawning from the coldest regions of Finland from one of the blackest hearts in all of heavy metal music. While the sound and styling of Carelian Satanist Madness may be synonymous with Finnish Black Metal (melodic, intermittent guitar patterns, cold vocals, and rudimentary but important drums) the way in which Satanic Tyrant Werewolf weaves his song structure together is both a reversion to what makes Finnish Black Metal great and a different form of songwriting that brings more to the table than just blast beats.

The first two songs on Carelian Satanist Madness do just that. They show you that Satanic Warmaster is not just another average band trying to recapture the Norwegian glory of the 90s. The Vampiric Tyrant is a brilliant track. It starts off with a driving riff that leads into a dark and moody clean melody carving its way within the blanket of haggard chords and double bass. Finally after a minute or so of this wonderful melody the meat and potatoes blast beats enter the picture to work along the verses. The riff here is also a good one; highly rudimentary, but effective in establishing its needs. The riffs and drum lines here are not the point, the structure and melodies are. The riffs themselves are melodic, leaving minimal need for the clean melody. However, that does provide the icing on the cake. This track is under five minutes in length but it leaves a lasting impression and proves to be one of the best tracks on the album.

The next song is one of the longest and most diverse. The title track starts off with a climbing riff working its way through another guitar track. This song starts off rather slowly and takes a while to develop, but when it does, there are nice moments in the song that stand out. Eaten by Rats is the next truly notable track. Its pace is unbridled by any other song on the album, but instead of boring me with a constant four minutes barrage of blast beats, it does well to make memorable verses. This is quite reminiscent to Black Thrash. However, the feel is as cold and as bleak as anything Finland have put out, it just has the musical feel of Black Thrash. The vocals are exceptional. They are perfectly strewn in the mix. They do not overbear any of the other instruments, yet they do not hide in futility.

Overall, Satanic Warmaster here present a fun album with enough bells and whistles to go around. Nothing groundbreaking or extraordinary, but hooking enough to make listening to Carelian Satanist Madness worthwhile.