Time has really caught up with Darkthrone, and they’ve gotten soft, all their past CDs were great and this one just isn’t. I mean, this CD has some nice parts and the singing as superb (as usual) but something is missing and I can’t tell just what, though I think that it may be the dark and evil atmosphere that their music projected on their older albums… The music here is typically slow and usually somewhat grim, the guitars also have a particularly nice buzzsaw type of sound, but the drums are pretty quiet and hard to hear in some parts. Some riffs (especially on songs 2 and 3 )are very happy(?!), though, and are quite unnecessary, but the majority of the riffs are alright, though. The basic song-structure is also quite impressive and Nocturnal Cult deserves some credit for that at least. The production is quite harsh (typical Darkthrone),and I think they recorded it using a crappy 4-track machine… or worse. I really wish that the drums would be louder, as it is I can barely understand what Fenriz is doing. With all that taken into account, this CD is nowhere near as good as their past efforts. I believe (sadly) that the Darkthrone we all know and love is dead and done. Time has definitely caught up with them and I’m not at all happy about it... *Sigh* at least we still have ‘A Blaze in the Northern Sky’ and ‘Transylvanian Hunger’ to listen to…

Pros: It’s Darkthrone, Typical good singing, nice song-structure
Cons: Happy riffs, hard to hear drums, not as good as their older material
Will likely appeal to: Anyone who listens to Black Metal and can come to terms with the fact that the old Darkthrone is dead.


Overall: Not bad, but not nearly as good as their old material – 7/10

© 2000 sauron anarazel