Darkthrone's second step in losing the traditional metal from their music. "A Blaze In The Northern Sky" already had the occasional minimalist riffing between those shameless Bathory and Celtic Frost riffs, but here many patterns are of the variety that would monopolize "Transilvanian Hunger" a year later. The traditional riffing is still there, most notably in the midtempo sections. It's somewhere halfway between ABITNS's million-riffs-per-track and TH's one-tempo-two-riffs songs, and it works all the way through. There's not a single weak track, and it's amazing how well the songs are actually constructed. There's not a moment in this album where they repeat a riff to often, everything just fits in the framework. Most 'raw and primitive' Black Metal that later flooded the market is nothing more than random riffs pasted together, and although that can yield some enjoyable results, a well-composed song is so much more effective.

"Under A Funeral Moon" sounds much thinner and very distant compared to the other Darkthrone albums, definitely not as in-your-face as TH or ABITNS. Way more bass too: "Inn I De Dype Skogers Favn" is driven by the bass line with the guitar only serving as fuzzy background texture. And it's so very evilllll, "Under A Funeral Moon" is much more morbid, depressive and obscure than anything Darkthrone did before or after. It's most notable in the closing track, "Crossing The Triangle Of Flames", which starts out very minimal and typically Darkthrone, but near the end spirals into one of those Burzum-esque dissonant chord progressions. Nocturno Culto's throaty rasps are dirtier and more vile than ever, and although perhaps not too obvious, Fenriz does some very interesting drumming here besides his trademark 'garden sprinkler' pattern.

Anyway, there's little more to say. Darkthrone's first three Black Metal albums "A Blaze In The Northern Sky", "Under A Funeral Moon" and "Transilvanian Hunger" are simply mandatory for a serious Black Metal collection, period.

© 2000 sybren