Year: 2024
Label: Werewolf Records

Released at the butt-end of 2024 with little to no advance hoopla, Finnish Satanic Warmaster’s Exultation Of Cruelty seemed to come a bit like a thief in the night. All of the sudden it just sort of was there, except because the holiday rush was pushing on, many record stores didn’t stock it before 2024 turned into 2025.

The previous album Aamongandr (2023) managed to seriously dent the charts, going all the way to the top of physical sales in Finland for a week (which is an achievement we don’t knock). Perhaps the lack of advance hyping surrounding Exultation Of Cruelty was a conscious reaction against that? Perhaps not. Suffice to say, the low key release policy suits well the nature of the album.

Because, if you were expecting the somewhat more polished sound of Fimbulwinter and Aamongandr… well, you’re in for a surprise! Exultation Of Cruelty takes several steps into a rougher, rawer, more abrasive and unpolished style. The sound harks back to a bygone age of the underground with its raw, dry and brittle guitar tone, the muffled and deeply organic drums and in how the bass is very downplayed in the mix. It’s not quite Strength & Honour (read our retrospective of it) levels of raw, but closer to that than to some of the more recent releases.

The same applies to the music. Straightforward, raw and vicious are apt adjectives to describe Exultation Of Cruelty. Synths are relegated to a minor supporting role, melodicism takes a backseat to tremolo picked fury. For this album, Werwolf has in many ways stripped down Satanic Warmaster to its barest essentials, including the line-up: everything is performed by the man himself, unlike on the two prior albums.

I’ve seen a lot of people compare Exultation Of Cruelty to US black metal legends Judas Iscariot – partially due to a very obvious reason we’ll get to in a minute – and Darkthrone’s classic album trilogy. Neither is off the mark: the purity of aggression, the sheer venom in the expression, the undiluted and uncomplicated hatred certainly echo the pioneering work of both acts.

But, as always, classic old French black metal, the Les Légions Noires in particular, can be heard in the unpolished sound and deeply organic musicianship. The likes of Nargaroth are not too distant associations either. There’s that same kind of turn-of-the-millennium underground black metal spirit here.

Oh, and the reason why Judas Iscariot is an obvious reference? Well, the CD edition of the album comes with a bonus disc – a “raw version” of the album – featuring Cryptic Winter of Judas Iscariot and Krieg fame (among others) on drums. And whilst the idea of an ever rawer version of a very raw album is amusing at first, it truly is just that. Slightly more demo like in sound, with a more violent and barbaric touch to the drums, the second disc certainly is rawer. Its main draw, however, are a couple of tracks not present on the album proper.

Whilst Exultation Of Cruelty represents a throwback to a much rawer sound and aesthetic, perhaps a kind of atavism even, it’s Satanic Warmaster to the core. There’s no element here that feels alien to the long-running and multifaceted band. My personal favourite, album closer A Dead Rose For A Dying World, lays on heavy those trademark tragic melodies which in no way compromise the rawness of it all.

The simple bottom line is that Exultation Of Cruelty is a brilliant album. It’s not a shedding of skin for Satanic Warmaster per se, but an apt reminder that there are many sides to the band, and that the authentic, unmitigated rawness of early noughties black metal is at its very quintessence. From the cover artwork (which made me think of Mütiilation) to the sound and to the music, Exultation Of Cruelty harks back to those bygone days without sounding like nostalgia or retro pastiche. Instead, it reverberates with the dark, timeless spirit of unadulterated black metal.

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