Nocturno Culto - The Misanthrope (DVD)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVA7pSkzopU]
The Misanthrope (Peaceville, 2007) is very much misnamed. No teenagers in corpsepaint here – Darkthrone’s Nocturno Culto is quite the social creature. He goes ice fishing with his buddies; he goes camping with REI (or in Europe, probably Jack Wolfskin) endorsee Fenriz; he hangs out with an old guy named Knut; he shoots live footage of Gallhammer and Aura Noir; he plays board games with Aura Noir. This is a paean to community, not misanthropy.
Don’t expect a Darkthrone documentary. Devoid of commentary and narrative, this DVD is basically a home video. We see beautiful shots of the Norwegian landscape, clips of Darkthrone rehearsal with Fenriz, artsy footage of Nocturno smoking, and baffling first person shots of cross-country skiing. The latter recall the video game Doom, in which your weaponless hand waves slowly in front of you. Footage of dragging around a coffin goes unexplained. Random jump cuts and cheesy visual effects abound. A cinematic masterpiece this is not.
Yet it’s still watchable; a home video by Darkthrone is more interesting than most of our sad lives. The Gallhammer footage is awesome and too brief. Fenriz busts out with some trademark one-liners. Darkthrone in their death metal days appear in killer vintage live footage. There’s that classic “toxic piss” scene I could swear I’ve seen in some black metal documentary. It’s fascinating to see a way of life so different from the typical urban rat race. Those who live outside Scandinavia will get the most out of this.
Nocturno’s soundtrack is truly ambient – pensive chords, hints of riffs, electronic noodlings. For background music, it’s pleasant enough, and comes on a CD along with the DVD. At the moment, black metal documentaries are in vogue; thankfully, this isn’t another one. It’s just a bunch of snapshots with a-day-in-the-life appeal.
The Misanthrope is available in Europe from Peaceville, and in the US from Relapse, Amazon, and The End.
