The black metal franchise known as Darkthrone have had a lotta potshots taken at 'em as of late. Cries of "sell-outs!" and "creatively washed up!" aren't hard to find all over the intrawebs. I guess that's bound to happen when your career has reached its second decade, but I still find it a little unfair. Sure, most recent albums like 2006's "The Cult is Alive" and 2007's "F.O.A.D." are hardly the frostbitten masterpieces that "Under a Funeral Moon" or "Panzerfaust" were, but there's definitely still some great blackened riffs to be heard, and I kinda dig their recent forays into Amebix-styled, thrashy punk. Fuck it though, that's neither here nor there-- let's go back to the very beginning. I present to you their first four demos, all recorded prior to their "Soulside Journey" LP. Here's whatcha get:
Land of Frost (1988):
1. Land Of Frost
2. Winds Of Triton
3. Forest Of Darkness
4. Odyssey Of Freedom
5. Day Of The Dead
A New Dimension (1988):
1. Twilight Dimension
2. Snowfall
Thulcandra (1989):
1. Eon
2. Thulcandra
3. Archipelago
Cromlech (1989):
1. The Watchtower
2. Accumulation Of Generalization
3. Sempiternal Past / Presence View Sepulchrality
4. Iconoclasm Sweeps Cappadocia
"Land of Frost" in particular, is fantastic-- a precursor to the unabashed Hellhammer worship they'd perfect on "Panzerfaust," with an excellent blend of slow and blistering tempos, as well as the suffocating atmosphere they've practically patented. The production is, of course, shit, but since the same aesthetic was applied to the majority of their early records, the seasoned headbanger's enjoyment won't be hampered in the slightest.
Proceed to thee grim comments.
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ReplyDeletepw = sln2008
This is great, thanks! I've been listening to the early Darkthrone stuff a lot lately, so this will be cool to hear
ReplyDeleteMan, fuck the haters!
ReplyDeleteI am totally down for the dirtheadthrashypunk attack that has been the last few Darkthrone records.
I used to listen to alot of BM, but it seems like the elitist attitudes in the genrre have limited it from being creative beyond whose corpsepaint is more intense these days.
I'm pretty picky about it, but these guys have never let me down - they are not posers.
Agreed!
ReplyDeleteI don't see what else they really coulda done-- they've got like, 5000 imitators doing what they perfected 15 years ago. They had to move on, tinker with their sound a bit-- wait & see: pretty soon tons of these "grim" dickweeds will be going on how they always loved punk all along.
Darkthrone are leaders, not followers.