The fourth and final of Peaceville's Darkthrone reissues is quite possibly their most infamous record to date. The sound here is probably as consistently raw and unpolished as the band has ever sounded, though ironically the totally underground recording is mixed more efficiently than the band's prior two black metal offerings. The drums are distant, and the bass is not at all as evident as it was on "Under a Funeral Moon", but the vocals and the guitars feel closer together, everything is a bit more compact. It's dryer in some ways, and I like that. The songwriting is definitely a bit more creative here, or at least the riffs happen to be more memorable, as the title track opens with probably the definitive Darkthrone riff in my opinion. It's not more melodic than the two records that preceded it per se, but the melody is often used in a more direct fashion, and the atmosphere of the record is incredible. And there are actually some twisted chord progressions and dissonant runs herein, especially in "Over Fjell Og Gjennom Torner", that sound not unlike what some of the more polished black metal bands started fooling with years later to "modernize" their sounds. Of course the disc does indeed come in a glossy digipack, and this marked another turn for the band. All of the artwork was done in high contrast black and white this time out, and all but two of the songs were written in Norwegian. One would assume the content of the songs isn't a great departure, though the English lyrics do make unusual references to "intense vampires" and more violent, raging battles against christianity. It's worth mentioning that the notoriously controversial "Norsk Arisk Black Metal" (Norwegian Aryan Black Metal) statement that was printed on the back of the original release has been altered to now read "True Norwegian Black Metal" - which the band claimed was their intent with the statement all along. The final CD-Rom installment of the interview is also just under 10 minutes, though this time only Fenriz does the talking (at least on camera). Aside from reiterating the fact that Darkthrone is a riff-based band (mentioned in the earlier chapters), the focus here is that Darkthrone was not in touch with the black metal underground at the time of this album - unaware what was going on with the rest of the scene. Therefore the writing was even more influenced by Bathory, and in an effort to achieve a "cold, dead fuckin' cold" sound, the band stripped down even more by hitting a 4-track studio. This is a great record. I never appreciated it when it first came out because I couldn't handle the recording at all, but listening to it now, this pretty much defines what I enjoy and tend to look for in black metal.
[Peaceville]
Running time - 38:59, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: Transilvanian Hunger, Slottet I Det Fjerne, En As I Dype Skogen]
Peaceville - http://www.peaceville.com
