Darkthrone - Dark Thrones And Black Flags review
| Band: | Darkthrone |
| Album: | Dark Thrones And Black Flags |
| Style: | Crust punk, Black metal, Heavy metal |
| Release date: | October 20, 2008 |
| A review by: | BitterCOld |
01. The Winds They Called The Dungeon Shaker
02. Oath Minus
03. Hiking Metal Punx
04. Blacksmith Of The North
05. Norway In September
06. Grizzly Trade
07. Hanging Out In Haiger
08. Dark Thrones And Black Flags
09. Launchpad To Nothingness
10. Witch Ghetto
It's another year and that means another offering from Darkthrone's dynamic duo of Gylve "Fenriz" Nagell and Ted "Nocturno Culto" Skjellum. Their latest opus, "Dark Thrones and Black Flags" marks their fifth release in the last six years and their 14th release since 1991's "Soulside Journey."
"Dark Thrones?" continues to see the band fuse elements of their traditional sound as well as their metal and punk influences into one caustic witches brew. The end result is that "DKaBF" sounds like the bastard union of their take on the more traditional metal sound of "F.O.A.D." with the bombast and energy of their crustpunk influenced "The Cult is Alive" - and it's a damn enjoyable album.
Their latest effort clocks in at the usual near 40 minutes, this time with a full 10 tracks whereas in the past most Darkthrone albums had six to eight songs. The end result is songs that are shorter, more driven, and more to the point.
The strongest aspect of the new album is the guitar work. Guitar duties were split between Nocturno and Fenriz, and it seems both showed up at Necrohell II studio with their "A" material. For the most part, the songs are dynamic, shifting riffs and tempos, and each song as at least one really cool riff that makes you take notice. Nothing earth-shattering that will have <insert your favorite axe deity here> furrowing his brow and spending hours sequestered in the back of the tour bus trying to decipher, but good, solid metal craftsmanship that will have you tossing the horns and raising some pints.
Vocal duties, as with the riff creation duties, were split between Gylve and Ted. The vocals were slightly annoying at first as they're all recorded a little heavy on the reverb, but that was easy to get used to/over on repeated listens. They do get a bit expressive at times, much to my chagrin, as with the slightly over dramatic chorus to the opening track? "the winds? they called? THE DUNGEON SHAKERRRRRRR!!!, but it all adds to the enjoyment of the album.
Fenriz put in a Fenriz-like performance behind the kit, with the drums pounding along, propelling the songs forward purposefully. As with the riffing, nothing fancy, just a good workmanlike skins to back-up the riffs and keep the energy high.
Production is pretty much what you'd expect from Darkthrone. They've their own portable studio. They pick a weekend, they each bring their respective instruments and a couple cases of beer, meet up, plug in, and get to recording. Nothing fancy here, folks.
I've used the phrase "nothing fancy" a couple times over the course of this review because "Dark Thrones and Black Flags" isn't anything fancy. It's Darkthrone. It's ugly. It's rough. It's dirty. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
If you like the direction Fenriz and Nocturno Culto have taken since "Hate Them", by all means, check this out. If you're one of those that don't like anything they've recorded since "Panzerfaust", maybe your time would be better spent raiding your mom's make-up cabinet and posing in your back yard at night with whatever implements of landscaping you have handy.
Stand out tracks: "The Winds?", "Oath Minus", "Norway in September", and "Witch Ghetto"
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 8 |
 | Written on 30.10.2008 by BitterCOld has been officially reviewing albums for MetalStorm since 2009. |
Comments page 2 / 3
Comments: 78
Visited by: 468 users
| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374  |
Written by Slayer666 on 24.04.2009 at 16:56 Dude, take some pills.... I'm not writing to you like I'm the master of the universe so you should be calm  Your reason to why you give a damn for the new darkthrone... I can't see nothing more that just whining from a fan of the older albums. If that's the best reason you can give... And what do you mean with "album"? why the quotation mark? You didn't understand why I put the word "useless", did you?. Maybe I didn't explain myself so good... I put another word then. It's absurd that you are whining about how "they make fun of a genre they stand for" since you wrote at the same time that they are not black Metal and not even metal now... You're just contradicting yourself. And in case you meaned the older albums... There are so many bands that hate what they did in the past. But do the fans care about it? No. Cheers.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287  |
Your first three black metal albums are often hailed as landmark masterpieces, while your later releases seem to get less stellar treatment from fans. (Personally, I'm a fan of your later output. Some may take it as heresy, but I slightly prefer them.) Would you be willing to share your thoughts on this? Does it bother you or do you care nothing at all about it? People that take corpse paint photos in their back yard like albums 2-5 best, motorhead fans, crust punks, and people with large record collections like THE CULT IS ALIVE best. But you know, the first steps towards the REAL forest life is at least going out in the back yard.. ____________________________________
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by BitterCOld on 24.04.2009 at 19:31 That's probably my favorite Fenriz' quote. It's exactly what I feel about BM and music in general. You start with pretentious stuff, it's normal... And then learn to just listening/playing whatever you want jsut because you love it.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Lord_Regnier Posts: 1469  |
I don't like anything Darkthrone have done since "Panzerfaust" but I won't bash the band for it. I just choose to ignore their new stuff and stick to their first 3 albums (I don't take into account "Soulside Journey" here because it's Death Metal). And this situation with Darkthrone is one more proof that Black Metal is music and not any kind of religion or special way of life like those 'Tr00 kvlt' kids pretend it is. Of course, I would prefer by far if Darkthrone still played BM but those who say Darkthrone are posers are wrong. They still play underground music. Unfortunately for me, it's a kind of underground music that doesn't fit my tastes at all.
---- "Why would we fear death, when life is so much more frightening?"
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| Slayer666 Posts: 2466  |
Written by Lord_Regnier on 25.04.2009 at 02:06 Exactly my point! I don't want them to play good-old BM because it's "a way of life", but because I like it a 1000 times more than this new crap. And crap it is. Darkthrone used to be about magnificent atmosphere, not this new "True Norvegian Punk".
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| Lord_Regnier Posts: 1469 |
Written by Slayer666 on 25.04.2009 at 12:34 I still respect Fenriz and Nocturno Culto for their BM legacy (what people usually call Darkthrone's BM trilogy) and for their attitude (they are not sellouts). However, their old stuff is infinitely better than this crust punk crap they're doing nowadays. Darkthrone is dead since a long time already, from a BM point of view. I find it sad when great BM bands turn into crap years later like that but there's nothing we can do about it. All we can do is listen only to their old stuff and eppreciate it. It's the same for Satyricon. Their old albums are awesome, while their recent ones are utter crap. Old Satyricon is awesome, but new Satyricon sucks. Old Darkthrone is awesome, but new Darkthrone sucks. Then act as if the new stuff never existed and listen only to the old stuff. If you can't enjoy their old albums because their new ones suck, then you're probably one of those people who believe BM is more than music, so you can't help but to despise the bands because they're 'not tr00 anymore' and it affects your perception when you listen to their old albums. There's a significant 'cut' in Satyricon's music after "Nemesis Divina" and there's a significant 'cut' in Darkthrone's music after "Transylvanian Hunger". When it comes to both bands, I listen only to their BM era. Not because it's 'tr00 kvlt' stuff, according to some people (I don't give a fuck at that 'tr00 kvlt' concept), but because it's BM, my favorite musical genre. On their more recent albums, both bands play a kind of music I dislike and have no interest for. Simple as that.
---- "Why would we fear death, when life is so much more frightening?"
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| Slayer666 Posts: 2466 |
Written by Lord_Regnier on 25.04.2009 at 17:34 The only reason I care about Darkthrone's new stuff is because I'm so dissapointed in it. I, of course, still enjoy the old stuff, but imagine what they could have done if they continued with BM. That's why I hate the new stuff so much.
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| Lord_Regnier Posts: 1469 |
Written by Slayer666 on 25.04.2009 at 22:25 I know what you mean. However, you can't really say "imagine what they could have done if they continued with BM". You and I can't possibly know what would have happened then. Maybe they could have created BM masterpieces better than their old works. Or maybe not at all. You seem to neglect the possibility that the reason of them abandoning BM could be because they had done everything they had to do in this genre. Perhaps they knew they were at a crossroad and knew they would not be able to do better but only plagiate themselves or regress (though I think they regressed anyway when they changed their style). By the way, I have no lesson to teach you but I believe you should be careful with something: by choosing to care for the new Darkthrone albums and hate them, there's a danger for you to get a growing feeling of bitterness. You could end up hating the whole band one day and loose interest even in their old albums. And I think it would be a pity, because they're very good. I'm someone who can very easily hate things when they don't fit my tastes but I try as much as possible to ignore things I dislike (I know it's hard sometimes). Things won't change because you hate them but hate put yourself in a bad mood and makes you suffer uselessly.
---- "Why would we fear death, when life is so much more frightening?"
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by Lord_Regnier on 25.04.2009 at 23:27 That's the reason to why I usually don't care if a band changes. It's the same with many bands, they just seemed to do everything it was needed. Better to end that way than just being a copy of themselves.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Lord_Regnier Posts: 1469 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 26.04.2009 at 01:32 I don't entirely agree with the last sentence because, in many cases, even if bands only repeated themselves without much originality, I'd still enjoy their new albums, which is not the case when they change too much. In this case, I love BM but dislike crust punk, so the new Darkthrone has zero interest for me. If they still played BM, even if it wasn't special, I think I'd still like their new albums, which is surely not the case with crust punk. Personally, when it's something I really like a lot, I don't care if I get more of the same and not something totally innovative each time. At least it's good music that belongs to a genre I like. Also, you cannot ask bands to re-invent themselves with each album, it's not possible. I prefer good innovation to stagnation, of course, but I also think stagnation is much better than devolution. Many bands that were great before changed only for the sake of changing or changed for worse and started to suck. In such cases, it would have been much more enjoying if they stayed as they were. The perfect example here would be all those Powermetal bands who are turning to hard rock now. They all devolute and start to suck one after the other. If they still played Power/speed Metal, lots of people would still enjoy them but because they change too much it's almost impossible to find any great PM band now and lots of old PM fans are loosing interest almost completely in this genre. Good innovation> stagnation> devolution
---- "Why would we fear death, when life is so much more frightening?"
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by Lord_Regnier on 26.04.2009 at 02:51 O well, That's my opinion of course. Since I dislike when bands do the same stuff over and over again and turns up generic. I try to avoid generic music. Although there are exceptions, I can give you that.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Lord_Regnier Posts: 1469 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 26.04.2009 at 19:24 When a band still writes very good songs, has its own sound and atmosphere, even if they repeat themselves, I don't consider the band as being generic because they still have something diifferent that makes them stand out and keeps them above the average bands in their genre. It might not be original or innovative but at least the quality is preserved. What I consider generic is bands who write very average or mediocre songs, have nothing distinctive, and sound like hundreds of other bands. Or when bands dumb down their music and start to play much simplier and basic stuff, as they don't maintain their level but become another sub-par band (thus forgettable), even if they were awesome before.
---- "Why would we fear death, when life is so much more frightening?"
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| Slayer666 Posts: 2466 |
Written by Lord_Regnier on 25.04.2009 at 23:27 You think they bailed on BM because they did all they could there? Hardly. A band that made Transilvanian Hunger must have had so much more to contribute to BM than one or two more albums. No, they were, as you say, on the crossroad and decided to take the easier direction. BM must be one of the hardest genres to make in greater quantities (I'm talking classic, unexperimental BM) due to very strict rules of what that music should sound like. But they could have done it, I'm sure. It's just that they choose not to, because, hey, punk is easier. About me quiting their old albums, don't worry I'm not that kind of a guy.
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by Lord_Regnier on 26.04.2009 at 19:47 We think the same way then. I agree with the logic of "If it's not broken, don't fix it" But I certainly feel like the albums that came after Panzerfaust [except Goatlord since it's DM] were a little "meh" if you know what I mean. So I though that it was time to search for some sort of fresh air again. If the albums were BM like the first albums, I wouldn't care if they stay that way. Written by Slayer666 on 26.04.2009 at 20:01 I see what you mean. Even if we can't see the "what if" stuff. I also think about bands that could have been the same way for a few more years or maybe just stick with the style for ever But what I don't agree with you is the thing that you said about punk. I really don't think they wanted to play it because it was "easy"... But because they wanted to.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Lord_Regnier Posts: 1469 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 26.04.2009 at 21:40 I identify "Panzerfaust" as the album on which Darkthrone started to change and go away from BM. So yes, it started to be broken at that point and not with the crust punk albums. I would not want them to release something similar to "Panzerfaust" more than crust punk. I don't like either of them. And yes, it would have been much better if they continued to release stuff like their old BM albums.
---- "Why would we fear death, when life is so much more frightening?"
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| Slayer666 Posts: 2466 |
Quote:Written by Slayer666 on 26.04.2009 at 20:01 Hmm.... Possibly. All the weed must have cought up with 'em after Panzerfaust. A shame, really. I really, really liked Transilvanian Hunger... And I can't get into the new stuff for shit. It's not just the music that annoys me, it's also the way Fenriz and Nocturno treat their music now: as a time-killing hobby, or a simple passtime. I always enjoyed music that was more.... serious.
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by Slayer666 on 02.05.2009 at 00:56 That's very subjective though... Maybe it's just not serious for you. Maybe this is jsut a dream!!!!!!!!* *= Ok.. forget that one. I'm kinda drunk now.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Slayer666 Posts: 2466 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 02.05.2009 at 02:27 Ah....OK. What was the ocasion? Anyway, when you sober-up, check the lyrics again, and tell me (but with all honesty) is it serious. Or maybe the "dynamic duo" (Fenriz and Nocturno) just became posers.....
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by Slayer666 on 02.05.2009 at 13:47 I haven't said that they are serious, just that they are not serious for YOU. Tastes differ, I don't see them as serious... Maybe some people do, who cares? Who really cares about the lyrics when the music itself is just for fun?. It's like trying to take goregrind lyrics for serious.... It's THAT useless, trust me. And now I want your definition for Posers... Because even if the genre changed totally, that doesn't mean they are posers.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Valaskjalf Account deleted |
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287 |
Written by [user id=1909] on 23.10.2009 at 23:46 actually, i am fairly certain it is music. maybe not music that is up your alley, but i'm pretty certain it is , in fact, music.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by BitterCOld on 24.10.2009 at 00:07 Who knows? Maybe he's this guy who actually invented music and know what's music and what's not. I'm sure he has a LOT of experience. I would gladly read his views about the subject, although I would still concider them as "fucking crap" mentally speaking  I really can't see what kind of status this album can give... Only people who care about status would say that this album had that goal.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 24.10.2009 at 04:19 and if one seeks status in the scene, it's cooler to slag everything Darkthrone has done since Panzerfaust... so enjoying this album ain't gonna score you kewl points with the kvlt kiddies.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| HBrandr Account deleted |
HBrandr
Account deleted Written by BitterCOld on 24.10.2009 at 06:32 Yeah your favourite band sucks.
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| HBrandr Account deleted |
HBrandr
Account deleted Written by X-Ray Rod on 24.10.2009 at 04:19 Why would you read his views on the subject then? You guys sound offended... you like the album, good for you. It's 'music' for you, for some it isn't - as simple as that!
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by [user id=98889] on 24.10.2009 at 17:00 I'm sorry, maybe I didn't make myself clear. You can say it's crap and I would totally respect and protect your right of having an opinion. Crappy music or whatever it's still music. He sounds exactly like that old and annoying mother/father who tells you turn off your shit and listen to "real music", only his standars. It blows my mind that people says "this is not music" even though there are all the proves to say that they are wrong. That's not an opinion, that's just plain narrow-mindness and totally lack of understanding of what's music and what's not... + The arrogance of claiming that statement. I will just leave it that way since discussions with people like him are useless. Edit: Oh yeah, one thing. Even if this band wasn't Darkthrone and even if it was a band that I didn't like. I would still write the same thing. I'm far from being a darkthrone-fanboy.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287 |
It's just funny to see the two south africans so up in arms in another review decide to tag-team this one in some lame ass attempt at retaliation. i honestly don't care what they think. i just wanted to retort to the "it's not music" remark because, well, clearly it is. whether or not someone likes it is a completely different issue.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Valaskjalf Account deleted |
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| Valaskjalf Account deleted |
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287 |
I just find it amusing that within a week of you two getting into a pissing match with others regarding clean, nice, slick, pretty, limp production on metal bands, you both jump into a review which had gone several months without comment. not one of you, but both. whatever. you don't like darkthrone. i don't care. it IS, however, music, regardless as to how much you may or may not like it. whether or not it's simplistic is immaterial. the POINT of it is clearly lost on you. enjoy your slick overproduced crap. i like metal/punk that is rough around the edges and actually has an edge and has some balls. Darkthrone fills that need.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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