We Journey Back Into the World of Black Metal to Discuss Satyricon's 'Volcano'

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With Damnation Festival 2026 just around the corner, we thought it provided an excellent opportunity to ask Dave back to talk about a band he’s been wanting to discuss for a while: Satyricon. Specifically we're looking at their 2002 major label debut 'Volcano'.

This isn’t the first time we’ve tackled black metal. Indeed, we did a whole two-episode deep dive into the genre back in 2019, but when doing this episode, we realised that we didn’t actually talk about Satyricon at all. Which is weird, because they were fairly integral to the creation of the second-wave black metal sound in Norway. Satyr himself was already a known quantity in that scene.

We right that wrong today. Oddly, though, we also know that this particular Satyricon album is, to some folk, not even considered a black metal album. It’s clear that this record marked a kind of change in direction for the band, as they began to embrace heavy metal more fully. Satyr himself probably disagrees with that, given that he’s on record more or less saying that he sees his band, regardless of the music they make, as part of the lineage of black metal...

But we digress. On this episode we take a canter through their discography, place their success in wider context, and touch upon some of the band’s internal politics.

00:00 Intro

01:17 Halloween Takes Over

02:57 Fire Facts And Folklore

03:47 Studio Admin And Festivals

05:02 A Halloween Gift?!

06:46 Damnation Lineup Hype

08:52 Introducing Satyricon

09:47 Origins And Early Era

15:25 Major Label Shift

18:32 Waves Of Black Metal

23:53 Purists And Sellout Talk

25:32 Controversies And Ethics

32:49 Ranking The Discography

36:09 Rebel Extravaganza Breakdown

38:40 Streaming Rights Mystery

39:29 Now Diabolical Era

40:40 Fan Ratings Whiplash

43:08 Age of Nero Breakdown

44:29 Later Albums Decline

46:17 Art Project and Lifestyle

49:12 Bands That Changed Sound

59:14 Volcano Track By Track

01:03:28 Fuel for Hatred Spotlight

01:10:52 Closing Thoughts