A Blaze in the Northern Sky

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A Blaze in the Northern Sky
Studio album from Darkthrone

Publication
(s)

1992

Label (s) Peaceville Records

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

Black metal

Title (number)

6th

running time

42 min 05 s

occupation

production

Erik Avnskog

chronology
Soulside Journey
(1991) 		A Blaze in the Northern Sky Under a Funeral Moon
(1992)

A Blaze in the Northern Sky is the second album by the Norwegian band Darkthrone . It was released in February 1992 on the British record label Peaceville Records .

Compared to its predecessor Soulside Journey , the work marks a U-turn in terms of production and composition; all elements of the album are considered fundamental to Nordic black metal .

Emergence

After the recordings for the album in August 1991, bassist Dag Nilsen left the band, Darkthrone stood there as a trio. However, the band decided to continue working without a bass player. Nilsen was listed in the credits to the album with the note "Session Bass Guitar".

In contrast to the previous album, this time the band recorded in Norway, in the Creative Studios in Kolbotn , where Mayhem had already recorded their first EP Deathcrush . This time the sound engineer was Erik Avnskog, who had also worked with Norwegian pop and folk musicians such as Hanne Krogh and Mari Boine . All in all, the production was started much more high-altitude and less clearly. In an interview with the German magazine Rock Hard in 2007 , drummer and singer Gylve “Fenriz” Nagell named the experience of listening to a demo recording by the Polish band Vader on a defective cassette recorder as the decisive factor for this change of style in production .

Another innovation was the mostly black record cover , which this time was created by the band themselves in the form of a photo. Against the black background, only these are white-painted face, hands and rudimentary hair of the rhythm guitarist Ivar "Zephyrous" Enger visible. Until 1996, all other covers of the band were in black and white, and a posing band member could also be seen on the cover of the next two albums.

In the booklet for the album, the band thanked Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth von Mayhem in particular and dubbed him “The King of Black / Death Metal Underground” in this context . The band also stated that they only play "Unholy Black Metal".

Peaceville initially refused to press the album because the production was so bad. However, the band refused to re-record the album, stating that this is how Black Metal should sound. According to Fenriz, the group threatened to resign and Peaceville released the album anyway. Peaceville didn't want to risk a loss of image if a new group had left the label directly. The album was released in February 1992 in an edition of 2000 white CDs by Peaceville. The second edition consisted of black CDs. Like all other Darkthrone albums released by Peaceville, A Blaze in the Northern Sky was re- released in 2003 in digipak and with an additional multimedia track in the form of a video interview. Another re-release followed in the same year with an edition of 1000 Picture LPs .

Track list

  1. Kathaarian Life Code - 10:39
  2. In The Shadow Of The Horns - 7:02
  3. Paragon Belial - 5:25
  4. Where Cold Winds Blow - 7:26
  5. A Blaze In The Northern Sky - 4:58
  6. The Pagan Winter - 6:35

style

The already mentioned production is characteristic with the strongly emphasized highs, a lot of reverb and only a little post-processing. Overall, this production is generally regarded as very raw, comparisons are often drawn to primitive recordings such as those in the rehearsal room . The vocals also changed from the deep growls typical of Death Metal to high- pitched screams , also underlaid with reverb.

In terms of composition, the album differs significantly from its predecessor, especially structurally, the songs are much more expansive in terms of length alone and offer a multitude of riffs in the individual pieces. The riffs themselves are not dissimilar to those of the predecessor, but gain a different timbre due to the new production . What has remained, however, is the strong contrast between fast and slow tempi , which is made even more pronounced by the long pieces.

In addition to influences from death metal, tendencies towards classic heavy metal ( In the Shadow of the Horns ) and, as Fenriz himself noted in a rock-hard interview on the 2006 album The Cult is Alive , to the Recognize punk . Some riffs and dissonances are also said to have an affinity for jazz . Furthermore, stylistically specific comparisons were made to the Swiss band Hellhammer and their successor Celtic Frost ; these influences emerged even more clearly on the later album Panzerfaust (1995).

In terms of text, the surreal tendencies have given way, mainly pagan and occult themes now come to the fore.

reception

Robert Müller from the German Metal Hammer described the album as "[e] rstmal [...] quite amusing", but the "musical innovation potential" was "about zero" and "[the] sound [...] about as crappy as on the one legendary Bathory debut ”; nevertheless he gave "[k] nappe" five out of seven points, "because I am still available for such heaps every now and then". Frank Albrecht from the German magazine Rock Hard, on the other hand, expressed himself euphorically:

“For me, 'A Blaze In The Northern Sky' is total cult because this record is totally different from what the rest of the Death Metal world is making these days. No pointless pounding, but mega-speed songs with fantastic riffs and a lot of style. Hacke has never been so beautiful! "

- Frank Albrecht

In retrospect, the album is therefore given the status of a classic; For example, a review of the German-language webzine Vampster describes the album as "a masterpiece that was and still is groundbreaking for (Norwegian) Black Metal." ( Vampster.de review ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gylve "Fenriz" Nagell: Until the Light Takes Us (documentary) . 2008.
  2. ↑ Fenriz : DARKTHRONE BIOGRAPHY AND VIDEO CLIPS. November 21, 2009, archived from the original on November 26, 2009 ; accessed on February 21, 2020 (English): “it was the first time we incorporated a MOTORHEAD style part (IN THE SHADOW OF THE HORNS, start of the last“ fast ”part of the song). ZEPHYROUS had written the first slow part of the song, i wrote the last "fast" part of the song, mid paced / almost every other turn there. "
  3. ↑ a b Review of Vampster.de
  4. ↑ Review in the Metal Observer
  5. ↑ a b Metal Reviews: Darkthrone - Panzerfaust
  6. ↑ Robert Müller: Dark Throne . A Blaze In The Northern Sky . In: Metal Hammer , special issue No. 1/2012: History of Metal , p. 43.
  7. ^ Frank Albrecht: DARK THRONE . A Blaze In The Northern Sky . In: Rock Hard , No. 60.

Web links