Transilvanian hunger
| Transilvanian hunger | ||||
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| Studio album from Darkthrone | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Peaceville Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP |
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Title (number) |
8th |
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running time |
39:04 |
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| occupation | ||||
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Darkthrone |
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Transilvanian Hunger is the fourth album by the Norwegian band Darkthrone . It was released in 1994 through Peaceville Records .
Stylistically, the album is completely in the black metal tradition of its two predecessors. However, the label "Norsk Arisk Black Metal" ('Norwegian Aryan Black Metal') on the back of the album and the involvement of Varg Vikernes caused controversy . Additionally, some provocative statements by drummer Fenriz in connection with the album resulted in a temporary boycott of the band in some metal media.
Emergence
Composition and recording of the album took two weeks. In contrast to the previous albums, Fenriz played all the instruments himself. The recordings took place in the band's own studio, which was simply called "Studio Studio". This is also where the recordings for the follow-up work Panzerfaust and later for Ravishing Grimness from 1999 were made. After completion, he sent his texts to Nocturno Culto so that he could record them.
The lyrics of the last four songs were written by Varg Vikernes , who in the same year was sentenced to 21 years in prison for the murder of Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth . The collaboration with Vikernes goes back to Fenriz; Nocturno Culto was never in contact with him. Fenriz wanted to give him the opportunity to speak through the texts as he was unable to communicate with the outside world while in custody. Vikernes later contributed the lyrics to the song Quintessence for the follow-up album Panzerfaust , but was already in prison at the time of publication.
Some fans understand the title of the album as an allusion to the fact that Per Yngve "Dead" Ohlin from the band Mayhem was wearing a t-shirt with the words "I ♥ Transylvania" on it at the time of his suicide on April 8, 1991. The record cover is again in the tradition of its two predecessors and again shows in the form of a high-contrast black and white photograph a posing band member in corpse paint , in this case Fenriz with a candlestick . This is also taken to be an allusion to Dead, as he was also seen on the cover of his band Mayhem's live album Live in Leipzig with a candlestick and in corpsepaint. Another possible interpretation of the album title is a reference to vampirism . The title song Transilvanian Hunger is about vampires.
Transilvanian Hunger was released on February 17, 1994 and was the last Darkthrone album to be released on Peaceville Records, having fulfilled the four-album contract with it. For their next albums, the band signed a deal with Moonfog Productions , the label of Satyricon guitarist Sigurd "Satyr" Wongraven. Peaceville released the best-of-box set Preparing for War in 2000 , and in 2006 the band returned entirely to the label.
There were initially two CD editions, the second being distributed by Music for Nations , and an LP version. On the back of the pressings at that time the slogans "True Norwegian Black Metal" and "Norsk Arisk Black Metal" were printed; the idea for this slogan came from Fenriz. Regarding the allegations of being a right-wing extremist band, Nocturno Culto later said "that DARKTHRONE was never a political band" and that "music and politics do not go together." New CD editions were released in 2001 (in a cardboard case) and 2003 (in Digipak with bonus material in the form of a video interview). The imprint was removed from both reprints, now only "True Norwegian Black Metal" is here. In addition, two new vinyl editions were released: The first was published by Peaceville in 2002 and limited to 2000 copies. The second new vinyl edition was a Picture LP and was offered in 2005 in an edition of 1000 on the Back on Black label .
Track list
- Transilvanian Hunger - 6:10
- Over fjell og gjennom torner - 2:29
- Skald av Satans sol - 4:29
- Slottet i det fjerne - 4:45
- Graven tåkeheimens saler - 4:59
- I en hall with flesk and mjød - 5:13
- As Flittermice as Satan's Spys - 5:56
- En ås i dype skogen - 5:03
Total playing time: 39:04
style
Compared to its predecessor, the songs are even shorter. At the same time, the minimalism that had already existed before was taken to extremes , for example the title song is based on three similar riffs with a playing time of just over 6 minutes and is kept at the same tempo throughout and underlaid with a drum rhythm with only a few fills and breaks .
The original melodic course of the riffs is also characteristic. The title song is once again an example, the first riff of which is carried by a tone sequence (d '' - c '' - h'-c '') above the organ point-like root a and power chords on chromatic tones. In the further course, a major sixth appears as a dissonance .
The production itself takes a little distance from the previous works, because the highs are less prominent and the drums are less clearly recorded.
In terms of text, in addition to the collaboration of Varg Vikernes, who was more dedicated to pagan and mystical than occult topics, the fact that this time the majority of the texts was written in Norwegian is remarkable. The text on Over fjell og gjennom torner ends with the racist statement:
"The Norrøne Rase må Slakte den other / Når blammen darker for tungt på vår dør"
"The Nordic race has to slaughter the other / When the blue men [mean blacks] knock too hard on our door"
reception
In addition to the already mentioned print on the back cover of the first publications, a statement by Fenriz in a fax to Peaceville caused accusations of racism and anti-Semitism :
"We wish to state that 'Transilvanian Hunger' is beyond criticism, and any man who attempts to do so should be thoroughly patronized for his obviously jewish behavior."
“We wish to emphasize that 'Transilvanian Hunger' defies criticism; whoever tries to do this should be treated condescendingly because of their obviously Jewish behavior. "
The boycott meant that the album and its follow-up work were not mentioned or reviewed in media such as Rock Hard . This was compounded by the fact that, as the magazine noted, "interviews with the musicians [...] turned out to be the wrong path into a world full of anti-Christianity, the glorification of violence and political stupidity."
In retrospect, however, the work was always positively received. In relation to the production, Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann noted in comparison to Nattefrost's debut album that Transilvanian Hunger was "the only [...] one hundred-point holder [...] on the state-approved hate scale." Continued Niall Kennedy from the Webzine Metal Observer :
"This album cannot be rated with less than 10 points and although in my opinion it will never match or exceed the genius of" A Blaze In The Northern Sky "[...] it is essential for the Black Metal genre."
swell
- ↑ Jonathan Jancsary: Interview with Fenriz von Darkthrone. metalnews, December 8, 2008, accessed August 25, 2010 .
- ↑ DARKTHRONE - Intervista a Fenriz , accessed October 15, 2012.
- ↑ a b Kory Grow: WEB-EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: DARKTHRONE'S FENRIZ, PART 2! HIS THOUGHTS ON 'TRANSILVANIAN HUNGER' AND HIP. (No longer available online.) Revolver, January 14, 2010, formerly the original ; accessed on August 25, 2010 (English). ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c Interview with Nocturno Culto at vampster.com
- ↑ Arlette Huguenin: DARKTHRONE: Too much black, not enough metal. Vampster , November 17, 2008, accessed August 25, 2010 .
- ↑ Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger (Re-issue) ( Memento of the original from August 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Peaceville Records: A Peaceville Press Release . Facsimile in: Michael Moynihan, Didrik Søderlind: Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground . Venice: Feral House 1998, p. 304.
- ↑ Darkthrone biography on rockhard.de
- ↑ Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann: Nattefrost . Blood & Vomit . In: Rock Hard , No. 202, accessed October 15, 2012.
- ↑ Review of Transilvanian Hunger on metal-observer.com
Web links
- Transilvanian Hunger on the label homepage ( Memento from January 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
Soulside Journey (1991) | A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992) | Under a Funeral Moon (1993) | Transilvanian Hunger (1994) | Panzerfaust (1995) | Total Death (1996) | Goatlord (1996) | Ravishing Grimness (1999) | Plaguewielder (2001) | Hate Them (2003) | Sardonic Wrath (2004) | The Cult Is Alive (2006) | FOAD (2007) | Dark Thrones and Black Flags (2008) | Circle the Wagons (2010) | The Underground Resistance (2013)