Having inked a worldwide deal with Napalm Records,Satyricon will be releasing a live DVD this May titled Live At The Opera; a clip from the effort featuring the band performing “Die By My Hand” can be seen above. Frontman Satyr commented on the release saying:
“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 year 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.”
The DVD/2-CD set is currently scheduled for a May 5th release date in North America through their new label.
Late last year the Norwegian black metal outfit announced a spring European tour, dates can be found below:
2/21 – Bergen, NOR | Blastfest
4/04 – Nijmegen, NET | Doornroosje
4/05 – Oignies, FRA | Le Metaphone
4/06 – Paris, FRA | La Machine
4/07 – Manchester, UK | Sound Control
4/08 – London, UK | Scala
4/10 – Durbuy, UK | Durbuy Rock Festival
4/11 – Bochum, GER | Matrix
4/12 – Wiesbaden, GER | Schlachthof
4/13 – Prague, CZE | Akropolis
4/15 – Munich, GER | Bachstage Halle
4/16 – Pratteln, SWI | Z7
4/17 – Montbéliard, FRA | Impetus Festival
4/18 – Pordenone, ITA | Deposito Giordano
4/19 – Vienna, AUT | Szene
4/21 – Warsaw, POL | Progresja
4/22 – Berlin, GER | SO36
4/23 – Leipzig, GER | Werk 2
4/24 – Hamburg, GER | Markthalle
4/25 – Malmö, SWE | KB
4/26 – Stockholm, SWE | Nalen
6/19 – Clisson, FRA | Hellfest