Darkthrone
Ravishing Grimness
[Moonfog]
Have Fenriz and Nocturno gone mad? Where is that grim Darkthrone sound?
Have Darkthrone gone soft? Are they untrue?
No. Darkthrone have got a different sound nowadays, and Fenriz's lyrics aren't obviously satanic anymore. But that needn't be a bad thing. It's just that things change. People can't be expected to walk the same path all their lives, to struggle lifelessly in a dark pit of abysmal lo-fi extremes.
Darkthrone cut this album in less than 30 hours, according to Fenriz, and it is in no way overproduced. It just sounds different. I wouldn't say that it's better or worse, just different.
Darkthrone have always been ahead when it comes to raw-sounding fucking necro, but this album doesn't sound as raw. On earlier albums it mostly sounded like they put the guitar amp in one room, the drums in another, and put the mic between those rooms. Now I can actually hear the riffs and the drumming.
But the soundscape isn't what I'm reviewing, I'm reviewing the music, the songs. And I must say that I had some fucked up things going on in my life when I bought this album, and reading Fenriz's lyrics made me realize he was in the same spot, that his life was fucking itself up, and that comforted me. Imagine that, actually getting comfort from blackmetal. Well it ain't the first time...
Anyway, this record basically sounds the same as their previous effort Total Death, but this one has better songs. It's mostly heavy as shit, and when it picks up speed, it sounds Darkthrone.
Buy or die.
© 2001 daoloth
No. Darkthrone have got a different sound nowadays, and Fenriz's lyrics aren't obviously satanic anymore. But that needn't be a bad thing. It's just that things change. People can't be expected to walk the same path all their lives, to struggle lifelessly in a dark pit of abysmal lo-fi extremes.
Darkthrone cut this album in less than 30 hours, according to Fenriz, and it is in no way overproduced. It just sounds different. I wouldn't say that it's better or worse, just different.
Darkthrone have always been ahead when it comes to raw-sounding fucking necro, but this album doesn't sound as raw. On earlier albums it mostly sounded like they put the guitar amp in one room, the drums in another, and put the mic between those rooms. Now I can actually hear the riffs and the drumming.
But the soundscape isn't what I'm reviewing, I'm reviewing the music, the songs. And I must say that I had some fucked up things going on in my life when I bought this album, and reading Fenriz's lyrics made me realize he was in the same spot, that his life was fucking itself up, and that comforted me. Imagine that, actually getting comfort from blackmetal. Well it ain't the first time...
Anyway, this record basically sounds the same as their previous effort Total Death, but this one has better songs. It's mostly heavy as shit, and when it picks up speed, it sounds Darkthrone.
Buy or die.
© 2001 daoloth