ALBUM REVIEW: Darkthrone – Eternal Hails……

Norwegian Blackened Heavy Metal legends DARKTHRONE are back with their newest offering, out now via Peaceville Records.

Desolate riffs bring the album in with a desert-rock vibe before crisp traditional Heavy Metal riffs cascade forth on a wave of rolling drum beats, continuing the monolith of old school worship we saw invoked on “Arctic Thunder” and “Old Star”. Blending those 70s rock touches with the more doom-laden version of Darkthrone that recent years have offered and a touch of Speed Metal, this is certainly going to be among the bands more anthemic material. The opening song is certainly a memorable start to the record, a call to arms that will perhaps subliminally send most English headbangers to their local HMV to pick up the new record. The production on the album has that quality that the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal seemed to encapsulate that is rarely mimicked correctly, wherein the mid-range frequencies give the music a certain drive and allow the low and high ends to fall into rank with a certain sharpness. While production is not my forte, it certainly works gloriously in delivering this Heavy Metal vision of Darkthrone in pure style.

In true Darkthrone fashion, Nocturno Culto’s ferocious and yet primal riffing drives a blend of most Metal subgenera into a complex yet easily digestible force of unwavering might while Fenriz’s busy yet hard-hitting drum work complements them beautifully. This duo clearly have not lost their unique dynamic and when the vocals add that snarling sleaze, the complete Darkthrone package comes into full focus and hits with stoic strength. There is an ultimately brooding quality the builds especially in the middle tracks, with big fuzz-ridden bass lines dominating the mix only for the crash of cymbals and diabolically demonic vocals to build upon as the guitar takes a back seat but is not lost. A punishing and yet absorbable listen from the off that will warrant many revisits to catch every nuance and subtlety that this mischievous duo have planted throughout. The lead work, as usual, is sporadic but complementary without being at all obnoxious. With all of the epic nature of Cirith Ungol and Manilla Road, the brooding venomous riffs of Celtic Frost and then a clean slate of originality provided by Darkthrone’s ultimately incomparable approach to writing songs, this record does have that modern classic feel, without feeling modern. A dichotomy only Fenriz and N. Culto could achieve so magnificently.

In each of the 5 songs, we see a slightly different direction that returns to the core of the album, almost like an anthology. The same root is present in their Heavy, Doom, Black Metal blend but the execution on each song features a marvellous amount of diversity from the more fuzzy bass driven “Hate Cloak” to the more typically anthemic numbers later on. Anyone who thinks Darkthrone might run short of killer ideas will unarguably be proven wrong once again. The barbaric and yet progressive contrast of the album is indeed a fascinating one, something of a throwback to Fenriz’s love of Uriah Heep is undoubtedly worn on their sleeves here. But of course Darkthrone do not do rip-offs, they invoke the spirits of old in their way, on their terms which is never a disappointment. While perhaps “Old Star” is the most energetic of their recent releases (and my personal favourite), that is not to say this album is less valuable in any way. The energy is vastly different, but anyone who knows an iota about Darkthrone should know we never get the same record twice, something that only demands even more respect for this unwieldy duo of tyrants.

Epic and bold yet viciously brooding with contempt, there is an astonishing maturity in this album that goes back to the early days of Heavy Metal. An offering on the altar of Metal that will satisfy all of the old school maniacs out there seeking an old-meets-new experience that only Darkthrone can provide in their one-of-a-kind way. Eternal Hails, bang or be banged and for the love of Satan, send back my stamps!