Darkthrone "Hate Them" CD
[Moonfog/The End]
What would you expect from Darkthrone other than just about 40 minutes of raw and nasty black metal with no fucking frills? This entire album was recorded and mixed in a mere 26 hours, and they did a damn good job considering, because the sound is of course dry and dirty, but it works out perfectly. You can hear the bass, the drums sound good, the guitars are totally rugged, as are the snarling vocals, but there's a balance of low-end tones in there to even everything out. Nice work. As for the songwriting, it's nothing new. The tempos tend to be moderately paced with some faster speeds and a driving punkish vibe at times (in a Venom sort of way), etc. Most of the tracks are pretty long (only one less than five minutes) and contain ample repetition, but it doesn't really hold anything back. "Fucked Up and Ready to Die" has some creative riffing with some weird chord formations and dissonant note choices between the guitars and bass, not to mention a killer slow break that's powerful as fuck (thanks in part to the simple but crushing drumbeats). You can't lose there! "Divided We Stand" offers up a few more changes and a small amount of what I would probably call traditional death metal riffing, and "In Honour of Thy Name" definitely kicks out the most rugged and punk inspired chord progressions of the entire record - but not without some slow and filthy dirges to go along with it. The layout is simple but highly effective. The front cover looks awesome, displaying that classic Darkthrone logo amidst repeating layers of a sawblade imagery. Very little color is used, just black, white, and some very dismal greenish/gray tones. Inside the pages are mostly black with a couple of high contrast band photos and some abstract textures making appearances between the lyrics. Most of the lyrics are in English with a couple of songs in Norwegian. The lyrics don't do much for me but I've seen worse. "Stepping on twisted knives in miscreation, Norway be my grave, Increasingly insecure, Combine with stagnant joy, Half my life in your name, Fucked up and ready to die, Death just takes a moment, Suffering is forever..." I've never been a huge Darkthrone fan, but more and more I'm starting to get into them, even after all these years. Longtime fans shouldn't be let down by this at all. (7/10)
Running time - 38:45, Tracks: 7
[Notable tracks: Fucked Up and Ready to Die, Divided We Stand, In Honour of Thy Name]
The End Records - http://www.theendrecords.com

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