Wow, I don't think that it gets more evil than this! 'Vobiscum Satanas' is an utter abomination to say the least. There's so much on these 8 tracks which are filled with lyrics that pretty much tackle Satanism entirely. This is black metal played in it's most extreme form. What else to say about this release of a pure holocaust! Featured here on this lineup is Emperor Magus Caligula on vocals/bass, Lord Ahriman on guitars, Typhos on guitars and Alzazmon on drums. They have gone through several lineup changes over the years but that hasn't stopped them from producing black metal to its mightiest extreme. It's a shame that this is only a little bit over 35 minutes in length.

The music itself features guitars playing at utterly spell bounding tempos most of the whole way through this release. Not too much variety there but that doesn't take away from the power the album exhibits. Also, the guitars on this release were tuned down to E-Flat which is the tuning they have always used since their first release 'The Secret of the Black Arts' (1996). The blast beating drums is featured on this entire release except for a few slower tempos but not that many. Also, some drums that contain fast double bass but it isn't prevalent throughout this whole release. The guitars contain tremolo picking almost through every track. It doesn't really change much here because I think their focus was to pound out some seriously evil sounds. They succeeded too by using minor chord progressions all throughout the album! This is about as dark as it gets. Since it was my first Dark Funeral release I'd have to say it was quite amazing.

This was a re-released version of this album which contains 4 bonus tracks of them playing these songs live. Vocal wise Emperor Magus Caligula exhibits some pretty extreme high end screaming which is what's featured almost entirely throughout this whole release. There are some tracks with him just bellowing some low end blasphemous lyrics. This is featured on the title track as well as a few other tracks as well. I can't say that I'm really into the lyrics but nevertheless Dark Funeral has really caught my ear. The overall production, mixing, and engineering is definitely spell binding. This is an earlier release too and it simply dominates. I couldn't get into the live tracks though I didn't really care for the sound quality. But I don't really like live tracks anyway. The fact that I got the re-released version is ok nevertheless.

For me, all of the tracks were well composed. Though I like 'Enriched by Evil' and the title track the most. But like I said, there weren't any tracks on here that I disliked. This is a pure Satanic black metal release. The fact that they didn't use keyboards to make this more chilling was really awesome. It was the vocals, guitar and overall sound plus lyrics which achieved their success in making it captivating. The sound quality is good as well though I couldn't really get into the live versions of these songs. Not that they're bad I just can't get into any bands that have live tracks on their album. All 8 tracks on this are good. But like I said, I don't like live tracks to be totally honest.

Rating: 9 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
Edited by Ryan Watson
12/12/2008 17:17