Darkthrone

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Darkthrone
Nocturno Culto and Fenriz (2005)
Nocturno Culto and Fenriz (2005)
General information
Genre (s) Death Metal (until 1991), Black Metal (from 1991), Punk / Heavy Metal with Black Metal influences (from 2006)
founding 1986 as Black Death
Current occupation
Ted "Nocturno Culto" Skjellum (since 1988)
Gylve "Fenriz" Nagell
former members
guitar
 Ivar "Zephyrous" Enger (1987–1994)
bass
 Dag Nilsen (1986-1991)

Darkthrone is a Founded in 1986, Metal - band , the significant in the 1990s influence on the Norwegian Black Metal had.

history

Beginnings

Darkthrone was founded in 1986 under the name Black Death and was initially influenced by Cryptic Slaughter and Celtic Frost . After the musical direction to be chosen was a problem at the beginning and the band could not even play their instruments according to the drummer Gylve Nagell , they developed into a death metal band. In early 1987, Ivar Enger became a member of the band, which renamed itself Darkthrone in late 1987; the name is inspired by the Celtic Frost title Jewel Throne and the Blackthorn magazine published by members of the Danish band DesExult . In early 1988 Ted Skjellum became a member of the band, in the same year their first demo Land of Frost appeared . In 1989 the Thulcandra demo followed, first appearances and the Cromlech demo. After the band had signed a contract for four albums with the English label Peaceville Records , they made their debut there with the album Soulside Journey in 1990. Until then, they stayed true to the Scandinavian death metal style; after demo recordings for a second album had already been made, the band fell out with the style.

Turning to Black Metal

The album A Blaze in the Northern Sky , released the following year, marked a radical change in style ("We first developed further and then decided to play primitive music again, who else did that?") And is considered the first album of the so-called " second wave of Black Metal ”, which had a significant influence on the further musical development of the genre. The main reason for this change in style and image may be the influence of Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth on the band, who was not only the head of the black metal band Mayhem and owner of the record label Deathlike Silence Productions , but also the initiator and leading figure of the said "second wave of Black Metal" is considered. After this change of style, Darkthrone performed in the left-wing punk club Café Strofal. In interviews, however, Fenriz announced that the band had stopped performing live in May 1991 and would never give concerts again; the band last played live in 1996.

The following three albums by the band - Under a Funeral Moon (1993), Transilvanian Hunger (1994) and Panzerfaust (1995) - brought numerous new artistic impulses to the genre and are all considered milestones of Black Metal to this day . The band's boycott also fell during the period of these publications : after a controversial interview in German Rock Hard as part of a survey on the Norwegian black metal scene, the magazine boycotted the band. Editor Frank Albrecht later admitted that he had "spiced up" the interview in order to make Nocturno Culto's statements appear more drastic. Due to various statements in interviews, especially on the part of the drummer Fenriz, but also because of the self-categorization as "Norsk Arisk Black Metal" ("Norwegian Aryan Black Metal") on the back of the Transilvanian Hunger album, the band was exposed to the accusation , racist to transport ideas and "one to crime and fascism to be professed band". Of the eight songs on the album, half were written by Varg Vikernes , who had meanwhile acted as a neo-Nazi . Since the contract with Peaceville had been fulfilled with this album and the appearance of the band had led to conflicts between the band and label, they separated from each other; Darkthrone announced that she would only work with Norwegians and switched to Moonfog Productions , the label of Satyricon singer Satyr, where she released the album Panzerfaust ; the German title " Panzerfaust " and another text by Vikernes on the album of the same name did not exactly help to refute the allegations. And although the band tried to distance themselves from this accusation on various occasions (especially in the booklet of Panzerfaust ), other music magazines joined the boycott.

From the mid-1990s

In 1996, Total Death, a rather thrash- heavy album, was released on which the sound "was cleaner again". The special thing about the album was that it was not Fenriz, but music colleagues from other bands like Ulver , Emperor and Satyricon who wrote the lyrics and the cover artwork was no longer in black and white. In addition, the recordings for the actual follow-up album to the debut Soulside Journey were released in the same year under the title Goatlord . For this album, new vocal tracks were recorded in 1994, on which Satyricon guitarist Sigurd "Satyr" Wongraven, the boss of the new label, also participated; Parts of the vocal parts taken over by Fenriz were mistaken for female vocals. In the same year the band gave their last concert, they played live on April 6, 1996 at the Rockefeller Musichall in Oslo with Satyricon and Dissection .

After Nocturno Culto had turned away from the black metal scene in 1997, Nocturno Culto created the 1998 Darkthrone tribute album Darkthrone Holy Darkthrone - Eight Norwegian Bands Paying Tribute with Satyr von Satyricon and Moonfog Productions ; Fenriz “thought the idea of ​​a tribute sampler was rather presumptuous, but at the same time I have a deal with Nocturno Culto from 1995, namely that from now on he will make all the decisions for Darkthrone, since I was the dictator in the band before. Nocturno and Satyr […] then got the matter off the ground. I have to say it's a very amusing record - and a very flattering one, considering how well the bands seem to know our songs. ”The band remained inactive at first; Fenriz stated in late 1998: “The band has been on hold for a while. It's not our job to make darkthrone music, so we're leaving it for now. Fortunately, I don't have to rely on making a new record to make money. ”Nevertheless, the band returned in 1999 with the album Ravishing Grimness .

More recently there have been discussions with various media that had been involved in the boycott since 1994. Around the time of the publication of Ravishing Grimness , Fenriz showed in interviews instead of the earlier, black-metal-typical serious appearance and extreme statements, increasingly humor, and the band members largely deviated from the worldview expressed in earlier times. As a result, they lost a considerable amount of credibility among fans of the black metal subculture who were not only interested in music, which is why the band is now disregarded or no longer noticed by numerous former fans. Despite the conflict with Peaceville, the band had kept in touch with the label and released the compilation Preparing for War there in 2000 , but officially stayed with Moonfog; the albums Ravishing Grimness (1999) and Plaguewielder (2001) released there did not bring any new innovations and were oriented more towards the original musical style of the band. Fans of the earlier releases are no longer considered to be artistically outstanding, but rather were perceived as unimaginative and uninspired “average food”, as a waste of mediocrity and not approaching the older works. According to Robert Müller from Metal Hammer , the accusation of "playing the same, minimally varied song over and over again" was justified during the Moonfog period. His colleague Tobias Gerber criticized the fact that "[t] he sparse riffs [...] for an interchangeable product of an increasingly moronic Fenriz and the booklets are more colorful than some hippie shirts".

Opening to the NWoBHM

After a phase of musical stagnation, the band opened up in style; accordingly, stronger influences from the spectrum of punk and the new wave of British Heavy Metal can be found on the releases from 2006 onwards . These were already found on A Blaze in the Northern Sky , but were more prominent here. Compared to Celtic Frost and Bathory , Venom , Voivod and Slaughter had become dominant influences at Fenriz . For the song Too Old, Too Cold , which was released on both the first EP of the same name and the album The Cult Is Alive , a music video was created, which was shown in excerpts in the Norwegian version of Top of the Pops and, according to Nocturno Culto, "without great effort or expensive director has more soul than these polished products of the industry ”. Nocturno Culto said the band was “not part of the entertainment industry”, whereas Gunnar Sauermann from Metal Hammer objected: “Anyone who appears in the singles charts and whose video is also shown in a 'Top of the Pops' offshoot, that is partially absorbed. "Fenriz said, referring to the band Rotten Sound , he would like to" apologize to our fans by entering the chart [...] to land something like a breakthrough after 19 years is sick. For us that doesn't bring a second wind, but wind 666. ”The EPs Too Old, Too Cold (2006) and NWOBHM - New Wave of Black Heavy Metal (2007) also feature cover versions of old punk bands. These more prominent elements also led to the fact that the music was compared to Motörhead , referred to as "Blackened Punk" or a heavy mixture of punk and hard rock with the black sound typical of Darkthrone; Fenriz himself referred to Darkthrone as "Metalpunk". In 2004 Nocturno Culto also performed together with Satyricon at the Wacken Open Air , where the Darkthrone songs Kaatharian Life Code , The Hordes of Nebulah , Transilvanian Hunger and Under a Funeral Moon were played; Fenriz decided not to take part in this gig. In 2005 the band returned to Peaceville.

From the sound carriers FOAD and NWOBHM - New Wave of Black Heavy Metal , released in 2007, numerous intertextual references to other bands were incorporated; thus Darkthrone became after Erik Danielsson from Watain to Fenriz '"homage to the music he likes", to "music about music"; Fenriz has an honest musical interest, but the lyrics sound like a joke, which means that “the brilliance and quality of old Darkthrone are so easily lost”. According to Robert Müller, the album “suggested that Norway's most influential black metal band now indulge only in the beefy recitation of archaic Thrash, Punk and Heavy Metal standards”. Tobias Gerber asked the question: "Do we really have to listen to a great scene with lyrics that pay homage to the true metal underground in the cheapest school English?" Stylistically, the band leaned more towards the 1980s, with Nocturno Cultos singing here “[is] infinitely demonic, he growls, growls, whispers, speaks in a very hard voice. The riffs are simple, but performed with passion. ”Fenriz's vocals on the title song range between punk and old black metal. Only with a few songs like Splitkein Fever , which is reminiscent of the Treblinka demos, and Pervertor of the 7 Gates , the band still approaches Black Metal.

In 2008 Darkthrone released a 3-CD compilation with the old demo and live recordings and an original, instrumental version of the Goatlord album . In the same year, their 14th studio album, Dark Thrones and Black Flags , was released on October 20 through Peaceville , which retained the style of the previous album FOAD . However, according to Nocturno Culto, “[t] he differences between Fenriz and me […] emerged more clearly on this album than before […] We have a different approach to composing: As a guitarist, details and variations are very important to me, while Fenriz is very important to me very different point of view. ”Also,“ [Fenriz] makes his preferences clear and tries to convey the meaning of overlooked bands to people. I'm less interested in this resistance movement against the mainstream in the metal scene [...] However, we are united by the love for the music of the seventies and eighties. Fenriz, like a music archaeologist, promotes fantastic finds from the underground. ”According to Nocturno Culto, Fenriz and he“ have the same attitude with a raised middle finger as before SOULSIDE JOURNEY [...] We have freed ourselves from all self-imposed constraints and are with us Having fun. [...] We only do what we feel like doing. "

On March 28, 2010, Darkthrone released their 15th studio album Circle the Wagons , followed in 2013 by The Underground Resistance .

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
The Cult Is Alive
  NO 22nd 10/2006 (1 week)
Circle the wagons
  NO 23 15/2010 (1 week)
The Underground Resistance
  NO 23 10/2013 (1 week)
Arctic Thunder
  DE 56 10/21/2016 (1 week)
Old Star
  DE 27 07.06.2019 (1 week)
  AT 23 06/14/2019 (1 week)
  CH 41 06/09/2019 (1 week)
  NO 18th 23/2019 (1 week)
Singles
Too old, too cold
  NO 11 05/2006 (1 week)

Studio albums

Demos

  • 1988: Land of Frost ( demo )
  • 1988: A New Dimension ( Promo )
  • 1989: Thulcandra (demo)
  • 1989: Cromlech (demo)

EPs and compilations

  • 2005: Under Beskyttelse Av Morke ( EP box)
  • 2006: Too Old, Too Cold (EP, 2006)
  • 2006: Forebyggende Krig (7 " single )
  • 2007: NWOBHM - New Wave of Black Heavy Metal (EP)
  • 2008: Frostland Tapes (3-CD compilation )
  • 2011: Sempiternal Past (compilation of the four demos)

Sampler contributions

swell

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Marc Spermeth: Obsessed with darkness and evil . In: Ablaze , No. 5, May / June 1995, p. 10.
  2. ^ A b Metalion : The Saga Of True Norwegian Black Metal. Vice Magazine , April 30, 2008, accessed July 26, 2014 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Peaceville Artists. Archived from the original on July 25, 2011 ; Retrieved January 7, 2010 .
  4. ↑ Michael Schäfer: Darkthrone . Back to the roots? No be the root! In: Sonic Seducer . No. 11 , November 1999, p. 37 ( imageshack.us [accessed January 10, 2011]).
  5. ↑ Michael Schäfer: Darkthrone . Back to the roots? No be the root! In: Sonic Seducer . No. 11 , November 1999, p. 36 ( imageshack.us [accessed January 10, 2011]).
  6. ↑ Oliver Schreyer: Interview with Darkthrone (November 16, 2008). November 16, 2008, accessed February 22, 2010 .
  7. ↑ Slobodan Trifunović: The Cult Is Alive - Fuck Off And Die! Retrieved April 30, 2010 (English).
  8. ^ Catherine Yates: How Darkthrone became Norwegian black metal's first official career artists ( Memento from January 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
  9. ↑ Michael Moynihan , Didrik Søderlind: Lords of Chaos . Satanic Metal: The Bloody Rise from the Underground. Extended and revised edition 2005. 6th edition. ProMedia GmbH, Zeltingen-Rachtig 2005, ISBN 3-936878-00-5 , p. 56 .
  10. ↑ Arlette Huguenin: DARKTHRONE: Fish more !. Interview @ vampster.com webzine. June 11, 2006, accessed December 4, 2009 .
  11. ↑ Descent Zine # 2, 1994. 1994, archived from the original on February 21, 2007 ; accessed on December 4, 2009 .
  12. ↑ COTIM Zine # 3, 1992. 1992, archived from the original on December 1, 2011 ; accessed on December 4, 2009 .
  13. ↑ Robert Müller: Metal Hammer # 2 1992. 1992, archived from the original on December 1, 2011 ; accessed on December 4, 2009 .
  14. ↑ Sascha Maurer: Metal District Interview with Darkthrone. (No longer available online.) December 29, 2008, archived from the original on November 2, 2013 ; Retrieved December 10, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.metal-district.de
  15. ↑ Frank Albrecht: Nonsense to the power of three! . In: Rock Hard , No. 71, April 1993, p. 97.
  16. ↑ Holger Stratmann (Ed.): Rock Hard Mania: 20 Years of Rock & Metal at a Glance. The best of the first 100 Hard Rock issues in the commented original reprint ISBN 3-9805171-5-2
  17. ↑ a b Holger Stratmann (Ed.): RockHard Encyclopedia . RockHard-Verlag, Dortmund 1998, ISBN 3-9805171-0-1 , p. 80 .
  18. ↑ Robert Müller: Darkthrone . Black standards . In: Metal Hammer , January 1999.
  19. ↑ a b Satan Stole My Teddybear music reviews - Darkthrone ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ssmt-reviews.com
  20. ↑ Album Reviews ( Memento of the original from September 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.the-plague.net
  21. ↑ Adam Wasylyk: DARKTHRONE - Darkthrone Bloody Darkthrone ( Memento from December 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  22. ^ Review of Sardonic Wrath at Myrrthronth
  23. ↑ Panzerfaust review by The Metal Observer
  24. ↑ "Not a bad album, but" Ravishing Grimness "just doesn't have the charisma of the older works like" Transilvanian Hunger "." Thomas Helm: DARKTHRONE: Ravishing Grimness .
  25. ↑ a b c d Darkthrone . Dark Thrones And Black Flags . In: Metal Hammer , January 2009, p. 92.
  26. ^ Gunnar Sauermann: Darkthrone . The double pack theory . In: Metal Hammer , April 2006, pp. 98f.
  27. ↑ Metal Reviews: Darkthrone - Panzerfaust
  28. ↑ Thanos Kallianiotis: Review of FOAD In: Ancient Ceremonies , p. 28.
  29. ↑ Anthony Morgan: New Wave of Black Heavy Metal - Fenriz pays tribute to the golden eighties era with Darkthrone's twelfth album FOAD (No longer available online.) 2007, archived from the original on April 8, 2009 ; accessed on June 15, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lucemfero.com
  30. ↑ Johannes Paul Koehler: Watain . In: Legacy . No. 66 (May / June), 2010, pp. 28 .
  31. ^ A b c Sascha “Sir Lord Doom” Maurer: DARKTHRONE - FOAD :: Rezension / Review at metal-district.de. (No longer available online.) November 27, 2007, archived from the original on November 3, 2013 ; Retrieved May 27, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.metal-district.de
  32. ^ Gunnar Sauermann: Darkthrone . Music archaeologists . In: Metal Hammer , January 2009, p. 80.
  33. ^ Gunnar Sauermann: Darkthrone . Music archaeologists . In: Metal Hammer , January 2009, p. 81.
  34. ↑ Chart positions albums: DE AT CH NO
  35. ↑ Chart placements singles: NO

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