…
Darkthrone jack-of-most-trades and all-around metal guru Fenriz describes album finale “Leave No Cross Unturned” as “1985 twice – 1985 Celtic Frost, then 1985 Agent Steel.” The tune flies by, and as the man himself said, it is a perfect melding of proto-black metal’s thrashy, sepulchral stomp and speed metal’s high energy histrionics, offered up in good faith and wicked humor. His gleefully OTT vocal gymnastics take his usual amiable snarl from a balls-in-a-vice yowl to growling gang vox and more than one gruff, well-placed “ough!” and the song itself, all fourteen-odd minutes of it, ambles along at the speed of a groggy ‘Morbid Tales.’
The rest of the album is just as willfully dated, dusty, and devilish in the best possible way. Darkthrone continue their devolution into the world’s best Manilla Road cover band with ‘The Underground Resistance’ via Peaceville on February 25th.
-Kim Kelly
…
What, no mascot guy on the cover this time?! What’ was he called? Ed GRIMley or something like that? These vocals are too much. Musics halfway decent though.
Mr. Necro, I think.
Pumped to get home from work and give this a listen. My interest in other second-wave black metal bands tends to wax and wane, but a new Darkthrone album still feels like an event to me. And _Circle the Wagons_ was fun as hell, so my hopes are partcularly high for this album, in spite of its (deliberately?) generic title and artwork.
Yep, it’s Mr. Necro. And Mr. Necro only exists if Dennis Dread does the album cover. KVLT.
Correction: It’s MAX NECRO.
Bummer that he didn’t do the art this time. Mr. Necro or no Mr. Necro, Dennis Dread does covers that have lots of little details that make them fun to look at more than once. I probably owned _Dark Thrones and Black Flags_ for a month before I noticed the sign above the tavern.
Ballpoint ist krieg!
If you look closely at the “Circle The Wagons” artwork, you’ll notice the Teitanblood & Morne patches on Max Necro.
http://www.peaceville.com/darkthrone/circlethewagons/images/CDVILEF276-500.jpg
I like the dead dove on his head personally. It makes for a pretty grim hat.
I can understand why people wouldn’t like this song, but it works for me, including (maybe even especially) the silly vocals. The high-pitched shriek at the beginning would seem to confirm Fenriz’s remark in last month’s Decibel about all the Fates Warning he’s been listening to lately.
Anyway, latter-day Darkthrone can’t hold a candlelabra to their early stuff, but it beats the hell out of their uninspired mid-period albums. And if anyone has earned the right to offer up nerdy music history lessons in the form of LPs, it’s Darkthrone. Fenriz is like that guy at the bar (sometimes me, I’ll confess) who can’t stop drunkenly rambling on about his record collection. But I think his enthusiasm is genuine, not some hipper-than-thou pose, and that the enthusiasm comes through in the music.
@pseudonymous – Right On!
YES
UGH.
And I don’t mean the Tom Warrior noises.
Yeah, this band was better when they weren’t a cover band.
Sorry, this is awful.
Just listened again. Yeah, awful.
i can’t help but take all the negative comments (and positive) as good signs that this will fuckin rule! drink up!
Perfect beer blast music for people who don’t give a fuck made by guys well into their 40’s. Fuck yeah. Sorry it doesn’t fit your hipster credentials.
Fucking hipsters.
I respect Gylve and Ted enough that I’m interested to hear whatever they do. With no offense intended, they are an institution, like Metallica. I eagerly anticipate each new Metallica release, not because I think it will join the pantheon, but because it will be worthy of comment… or at least comedy.
There has always been a forlorn nostalgia for things past in Darkthrone. In 1991 that may have meant 1485 and today it may mean 1985, but it’s a consistent quality. I would not waste time trying to convince anyone this is “good.” It is, however, good enough for me.
“I would not waste time trying to convince anyone this is “good.” It is, however, good enough for me.”
Hear, goddamn, hear. That’s how I feel about the last few Darkthrone releases. You either you get it or don’t – any new Darkthrone is better than no new Darkthrone and for me I’m going to listen to the living shit out of this to and fro work in my little piece of shit car.
Nice to hear adults still having fun. More bands could learn from this. So what if it’s not what they were doing 20 years ago, it’s what they’ve been doing for the past 10 and that’s been pretty good. And fuck yeah to the Celtic Frost riffage at 5:00. In case anyone forgot, riffs like that were also on Blaze… Nothing has changed. Everything has changed.
Best thing to happen in 2013 so far. Hail Darkthrone! Hail True Metal! Killer all posers!
Also I hope I’m not the only one who hears a shout out to Slayer’s Black Magic in the beginning.
fuck yes ! one of the most anticipated records for me this year. beers !
I think this is awesome. Darkthrone continues the path of beer slaying destruction! Death to posers!
Fantastic!
JIM FITZPATRICK ARTWORK!
JIM FITZPATRICK ARTWORK!!!
Is it too late for Darkthrone to just change their name? Yes, their legacy would be in tatters if not for their 2nd-6th albums, fuck this is emberassing to listen to.
The in-song comments are f-in hilarious “King Diamond shit himself” is my fave, I think.
Whoever invented that tech is genius.
Whoever hated this song should consider how much more disappointed you’ll be when YOU actually grow old.
“Whoever hated this song should consider how much more disappointed you’ll be when YOU actually grow old.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Fucking brilliant! Hats off to you, sir!
At what point in their career have Darkthrone ever sounded like a Manilla Road cover band? Never, that’s when, also the crust influences in their sound have been way overstated, half the people who use that term have no idea what it is. I’m no expert but I can say for certain that Circle the Wagons etc. aren’t crust.
Anyway, this is a cool snippet and I eagerly await the new album.
Nocturno Culto, hail!
How the fuck does one not like this if they like metal?
wow, this is way better than any Darkthrone I’ve heard since they got all jokey. Might be the first time I get one of their albums in a decade.