Has it really been three years since the last Darkthrone album? They normally shat them out like a tramp does mouldy brown water after a night foraging in bins behind the back of the local kebab shop. You may well have heard some rumours about this follow up to 2010 release ‘Circle The Wagons,’ rumours that the band had gone back to worshiping true manly metal with the likes of Manilla Road and Manowar (gasp, shock horror) being cited. Considering my dislike of loin cloth wearing nappy metal I should perhaps have passed this one to a troo worshipper of such things but I did not for a couple of reasons. The first was that after a couple of listens I was laughing too much and the second as I simply could not anyway as the promo album was presented to me as a stream only option. I should have said NO to doing this as we would not normally do reviews in such a fashion (for a start you cannot listen to them whilst doing your shopping on MP3) but mainly as this is Darkthrone and if the label want to look on Ted and Glyve as the black metal equivalent of Justin Beiber and Olly Murs then fair enough!
Although oh reader you may well be preparing for me to do a hatchet job on this as it couldn’t really be further removed from necrotic greats like A Blaze… and Transilvanian Hunger if it tried, it is still the throne and there are only a pair of regents worthy of sitting on it and wearing their crowns (albeit sitting on each others laps). These six songs are glorious fist pumping odes to times gone by and after a couple of listens you will be not just humming along but hitting the high falsetto notes (indeed it does contain these) with rafter raising abandon and pumping your fists in the air along with them.
We have six songs, three from each starting with Nocturno for the first and then Fenriz etc consecutively for those of you who wish to follow. ‘Dead Entry’ has that gnarly doom laden feel about it and a classic tumult with a hint of nihilistic punk spilling over from the last album. Rough and raw vocals see it tenaciously digging in and the mid pace tumult is heavy and gravid. Some big sharp riffs fly out the tumult adding to the distinction along with classic sounding solo. NC’s tracks are admirably described by Fenriz as “torn from the wombs of the riders of rohan of metal’ spot on. After this short burst of craggy mid 80s metal worship Fenriz lightens the mood as he opens ‘Valkyrie’ with an acoustic strum sounding like it has escaped an arid spaghetti western. As it lengthens it is evident this is a song for a HERO and when the glorious melody and clean vocals literally soar out you will be hooked, yep this is one of those metal tracks from the golden dawn of NWOBHM and if you are unable to worship at its feet you are obviously not worthy of the Throne anymore and should abdicate forthwith. It’s a fucken great song and could be one of the greatest you hear this year. If I had it on MP3 and pumped iron down the gym this is exactly where I would be with it! ‘Lesser Men’ has a fast strumming guitar and some echoing solo before that rough as sandpaper vocals growls in. You can easily cite the expected Frostian and Venomous ones to Nocturno’s numbers and his tracks are simply executed in a fashion that so many try to copy forgetting there is one Darkthrone and they do it the best. The riffs are tight and forged on dark moribund plateaus, grim and determined and full of doom!
So to side B as that is the way this should be experienced truly. At just over 4 minutes ‘The Ones You Left Behind’ sees Fenriz telling a bold tale, one to the fallen and one that is victorious and has the spirit of classic Isengard even behind the more harmonic crooning vocals. There is a lot of sharp, snappy cymbal on this giving it definition and wait for that first falsetto yell, if that doesn’t bring a shit eating smile to your face there’s something wrong with you. He even somehow gets away with rhyming couplets like “excited, delighted” but that is exactly how listening to this makes me feel. Bring the final doom, ‘Come Warfare, The Entire Doom is a longer number oozing in and marching through thick clay with vocals like the drowned in tar dying yells of a 200 tabs a day smoker. There is a sludgy and decrepit feel about this and whilst Fenriz has brought the joy to the album it seems like Nocturno has brought shit, the dread and destruction. Of course that’s fine as one gets the chance to power and slam fists to the shivering riffs Getting into a good gallop this powers away and even with the vocals yelling “all systems fail” these steeds of steel are not letting up before the finishing line!
The last track truly deserves a paragraph to its own. You may well have already heard Fenriz most epic number online and at almost 14 minutes ‘Leave No Cross Unturned’ is a true beast of a metal anthem, the sort of one that used to take up the whole of a side of vinyl on its own back in the day and one that everyone would have insisted finish any deserving metal club off for the night whilst everyone fell over in a drunken stupor and ambulances ferried everyone off with serious neck injuries. Fenriz puts on one hell of a vocal performance here with elongated falsetto screams and with classic melodic harmonies running roughshod all over the place. The chorus is the rock here too with the song title simply being hollered out by our dastardly duo until you are stuck with it for life. Add death grunts, tortured moans, ebbing downbeat bass heavy power riffing slow parts and jagged soloing and boy have you got one of the best metal songs you are ever likely to hear, fantastische sachen. The only shitter about it is the fact that we are never likely to witness this live in all its glory!
What is left to say, I feel like I got kind of carried away with this review but it was one that was worth it. I have managed to avoid all other reviews of it too and it is just before the printed mags turn up with their write ups and marks. I have a feeling they are all going to be fawning over this too but I bet there are some who will not get this in the slightest, their loss. If you love metal in any shape or form you need this album in your life!
(8.5/10 Pete Woods)
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