Darkthrone – The Underground Resistance |
Published March 05 2013
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Dead Early* |
| Genre | Black Metal |
Nocturno Culto/Fenriz
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Vocals
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| Tracks | 6 |
Nocturno Culto
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Guitar
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| Running time | 42 Min. |
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Guitar
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| Label | Peaceville |
Nocturno Culto
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Bass
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| Release | 25 February 2012 |
Fenriz
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Drums
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| Country | Norway |
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Keyboard
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| Producer | Fenriz | ||
| Similar artists | Celtic Frost, Venom, Bathory | ||
2006 was an important year in Darkthrone history with the release of the crust punk/black metal milestone The Cult Is Alive, which in many ways reinvented the band and pushed the boundaries of the black metal genre. I was rather underwhelmed by the three albums that followed - F.O.A.D., Dark Thrones And Black Flags and Circle The Wagons - and so my expectations weren’t all that pumped up for Darkthrone’s sixteenth (!) album, The Underground Resistance.
However, ten seconds into the album I was intrigued. Dead Early opens up with some amazing black-metal riffs that reek of early Bathory and Celtic Frost - I just wish more black-metal bands would write songs like that today. With a slower pace, more heavy metal elements and high-pitched vocals, Valkyrie stands out from the rest of the songs on the album and while I didn’t really like it at first it has grown on me.
Lesser Men is another song that should make Tom G Warrior proud - the similarities with early Celtic Frost are striking. In general, the crust punk influences are a little bit toned down with this album, compared with its recent predecessors, and instead there are more elements from the first wave of black metal which I think is great. The Ones You Left Behind and Come Warfare, The Entire Doom are decent songs as well but the latter one being almost nine minutes feels perhaps a little excessive. On the other hand, Leave No Cross Unturned clocks in at almost fourteen minutes which kind of takes the edge of my last sentence. It is a good song, very good even, but it could easily have been half as long without losing any impact.
A little trivia: The album’s cover art is done by Jim Fitzpatrick who has done many of Thin Lizzy’s covers but is without a doubt most famous for the iconic two-tone portrait of Che Guevara. The cover art above is pretty small but at full size it is really an impressive work with lots of detail.
Some hardcore black-metal fans might dislike the production,
since this is probably the most clean-sounding Darkthrone album to date,
but I really think they nailed it - especially the guitar sound which
is amazing. Although some of the songs could have been shortened to
keep the momentum going, this album exceeded all my expectations. I
look forward to sixteen more albums!
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Performance
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Originality
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Production
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Vocals
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Songwriting
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7 |
7 |
8 |
7 |
7 |
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Summary
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7 chalices of 10 - Bjorn |
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