Whew! It’s hard to believe that it’s been over ten years since I first heard DARKTHRONE. The feelings are still the same now as they were when I first subjected myself to the pounding, “Under a Funeral Moon” title years ago. The first thought is, “Man, this is fuckin’ chainsaw heavy metal defined!” Now, sure, it’s 2004 and the production’s up a few ticks from those thinly produced early works. But the vibe is strong as ever. What kind of demented soul would listen to stuff like HELLHAMMER, and then proceed to reduce those sinister tones to their rawest, simplest, and most blackened core? Well, Nocturno Culto and Fenriz of DARKTHRONE do a bang up job of it, album after album. And in standard DARKTHRONE fashion, this latest disc starts off sounding like an aerosol can chucked into a campfire…and it doesn’t let up until the disc’s very last downstroke.

I’ve always been a little puzzled as to why many of the die-hard CELTIC FROST / KREATOR etc. 80s thrash mongers don’t make the jump to great black metal like this. It’s so stripped down, and it has all the same creepy graveyard vibes as those early BATHORY records. Remember those early days when the thrash bands swore they’d never lose sight of their roots and screw their audiences? Well, these guys deliver consistent auditory mayhem to rabid metal fans worldwide, and that’s worth a ton in my book. Personally, I love the menacing and malicious guitar voicings in tracks like “Sacrificing to the God of Doubt”. Plus, the intensity of “Hate is the Law”, with special guest Apollyon of old-school black metal vets AURA NOIR was a stark reminder of yet another band I’ve been meaning to check out. So many bands, so little time.

Well, at any rate, if you’ve had enough with pseudo-punk rock or cheesy power metal, and would like to clobber your eardrums on something superbly dark and nasty, then I highly recommend “Sardonic Wrath”. A tour with these guys and LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR would be a stroke of genius.

- Marchman

OFFICIAL SITE: www.darkthrone.no

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