Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger
Review: An album of pure melody running like riverstreams under a pulsing ambient beat with no teleology or intention other than a continuous cycle of aggression and ambiguity brings forth its genius in the complexity of the relations in these deliberately scaled-down simple riffs and melodic interchanges. Highly dissonant in its composition, this music builds spaces to grow in from the seemingly random and nihilistic combinations of notes that are simultaneously familiar in their essential relationships.
Master percussionist Fenriz extends his philosophy of simple drumming to a style where the toms and bass interplay for a constant roughshod grapple of elemental forces as accented by the sinister shadow of a companion cymbal or high-hat, riding each other into a continuity unprecedented in this genre, including archly-satanic battlefield fills that in simplicity and desperation express the dying gasp of a world aflame with its own denial. Over that guitars layer melody in single notes and contrapuntal dissonant patterns, creating a void of extreme ambiguity that demonstrates the doppler effect in music by approaching beat centers with a rising or descending but paradoxically oppositional melody.
1. Transilvanian Hunger
2. Over Fjell Og Gjennom Torner
3. Skald Av Satans Sol 
4. Slottet I det Fjerne
5. Graven Tåkeheimens Saler
6. I En Hall Med Flesk Og Mjød
7. As Flittermice As Satans Spys
8. En Ås I Dype Skogen
Orchestration of construction makes the brilliance of this album; raw patterns fashioned from chaos build entities of sublime profundity from the subconscious parsing of metaphorical structure. The voice of bitter wisdom sounding harsh angular tones above the raging madness acts as commentator; the music stands alone.