vote
7.5
- Bands:
DARKTHRONE - Duration: 00:43:29
- Available from: 04/26/2024
- Label:
-
Peaceville
After over twenty records in a thirty-year career, a new Darkthrone release should probably be analyzed with a series of more or less provocative questions: is it necessary? Do they still have something to say? Are they there or do they do it?
Unfortunately, or fortunately, the answers to all these questions are absolutely personal and fluctuating; perhaps they even go beyond listening to the album, inevitably bringing into play the very concept of extreme metal, at least when referring to the bands born in that golden period between the fjords and cities of Norway. And in this, Darkthrone, at least, do not make a mistake in their approach: it is useless to pretend to be incendiary after fifty years have passed, reiterating old stylistic features only to remember that they were ‘there’ at the beginning of everything, and in their case looking even further back does not represent a limit, indeed. Compared to the previous and not very successful “Astral Fortress”, here the pieces are there, in terms of composition and dynamism, and not bad for a couple of less incisive songs: “Eon 3” seems to throw their sardonic wrath without mystery, with his ride and Fenriz’s coarse voice as cadeaux, but it is certainly not unforgettable. As well as the instrumental “And In That Moment I Knew The Answer”, honestly little more than a filler, even if the catacomb cadence works. On the rest of the album, however, the (now) usual passion for the roots of everything we listen to today explodes very well; from the speed metal of yesteryear of “Black Dawn Affiliation”, an exhilarating bomb, with even a rather explicit reference to Metallica of “Orion”, to the more classic doom and, in general, everything that was rotten and underground a few decades ago. “Howling Primitive Colonies” already makes you enjoy with its initial synth (which returns like a cherry on the cake on “The Bird People Of Nordland”), while the interweaving of riffs and the hoarse voice of Nocturno Culto do the rest for a piece which looks heavily towards Tom G. Warrior. A sensation that takes hold even more on “The Heavy Hand”, here opposite Hellhammer, while “The Lone Pines Of The Lost Planet” confirms Darkthrone’s tendency to close records with intense and high-caliber suites, in which synths return, the Lovecraftian atmospheres that peeped out on previous records and a nice vocal dribble between the two partner in crime.
In short, the two do not offer the ecstatic joy of “The Underground Resistance”, the album in which the game of nostalgia had given excellent results, but they bring back important riffs, excellent and varied drum work and, in general, a rediscovered compositional vein, which we feel like rewarding by giving a full point more than the previous album. We don’t feel like contradicting those who think that Darkthrone are now playing with their audience, but if the moments in which Fenriz and Nocturno Culto find inspiration still excite you, ignore the premise and enjoy a decidedly successful return to the track.
